The first gold coin of the Czech Mint from the four-part miniseries War Year 1939 commemorates the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, which took place several months before the outbreak of World War II.

The period of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia belongs to the darkest eras of Czech history. Nazi dictatorship was established in our ruined country, which was shattered by the Munich dictatorship on March 16, 1939. Our main purpose was to serve the Third Reich and the voracious demands of its leader. Pre-war Czechoslovakia was one of the ten richest and most industrialized countries in the world, and the totalitarian regime needed its rich war potential for its conquests. Some wicked tongues said that we have cowardly submitted instead of fighting, however, this is not true. We did not give up. Of course, there were those who knew that whoever worked for Germany would have relative peace. On the other hand, many people knew that if the Nazis succeeded, neither the formal autonomy of the protectorate nor the existence of the Czech nation would last long. These patriotic conscious people formed the domestic resistance. Officers and politicians formed illegal organizations in the seclusion of conspiracy apartments or in deep forests and inaccessible mountains. Artists wrote anti-occupation texts and created anti-Nazi drawings in the solitude of their workshops and studios. Workers sabotaged military factories without witnesses. The public did not hesitate to demonstrate resistance to the Nazi occupation so that the whole world could see it. Thanks to all these heroes - famous and unknown - our nation overcame with honor the hardships of World War II.

The coin was processed by the medal maker Mgr. Art. Miroslava Hrice, Art.D. On the reverse side there are Nazis that refute the border pillar, symbolizing the overthrow of the republic, which began with the Munich Agreement and was completed with the establishment of a Protectorate. The scene is accompanied by a map of the protectorate, supplemented with areas appropriated by the Third Reich. As the license for the issue of commemorative coins of the Czech Mint is granted by the Pacific island of Niue, the obverse side bears its necessary attributes - the name and portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, a nominal value of 5 DOLLARS (NZD) and the year of issue 2021.

You can save the complete collection of four war coins in a thematic tin case that you can also find in the offer of the Czech Mint.