Johann Wolfgang Goethe appears on the gold coin of the Czech Mint from the free cycle commemorating important personalities of world history. He joined the hall of greats in the year that marked the 190th anniversary of his death.

The German writer Johann Wolfgang Goethe, who is considered the greatest literary figure of his time, created an incredibly large and meticulously detailed body of work at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. He wrote a number of lyrics, dramas, epics, extensive correspondence and theoretical writings. He was inspired by German legends and ill-fated love, antiquity and Shakespeare. He projected resigned melancholy and determined defiance into his works. He helped inexperienced young men to find their way through life, and offered expert composers new inspiration. He transcended conventions, yet he did not beat them. His approach to reality and to exploring the world was both literary and scientific. Although he went down in history as a writer of world renown, he was also a lawyer, legislator and minister, a skilled painter, sculptor and road designer, and a renowned connoisseur of coins, porcelain and paint. No wonder Heinrich Heine described Goethe as “a gnarled tree that overshadowed all and left them to wither“.

The author of the commemorative coin is the academic sculptor Zbyněk Fojtů. The faithful portrait of the writer inspired by contemporary painting is accompanied by the inscription JOHANN WOLFGANG GOETHE on the reverse side of the coin. The obverse side of the coin, which is dedicated to Goethe's famous monumental tragedy, is consumed by flames in which the inscription FAUST appears. As this is a coin issued with a foreign licence of the island of Niue, the obverse side still bears the necessary attributes of that issuer - the name and portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, the nominal value of 25 DOLLARS (NZD) and the year of issue 2022.

The coin, which is issued in a limited edition of 200 pieces, is supplemented with a pictorial certificate of authenticity that commemorates Goethe's most famous works.