We commemorate the 90th anniversary of the birth and the 5th anniversary of the death of academic sculptor Jiri Harcuba in 2018. The commemorative set of four silver mintages of the Czech Mint pays tribute to the world famous artists and their unmistakable style.

Jiri Harcuba came from Harrachov and his family tradition always led him to glass. He enrolled engraving in the New World glassworks and continued at the Glass school in Novy Bor and then at the Academy of Arts and Crafts in Prague. He became medalmaker during relaxed time of the 1960s, which changed the coin issuance conditions. The czechoslovak five-crown became the first Harcuba´s realization. It was released into circulation in 1966 and Harcuba has not missed any competition listed by the state bank since 1968. However, he was soon sentenced to imprisonment for the offense of sedition, which was based on silver medal authorship, with which he expressed his disagreement with the occupation of Czechoslovakia by "friendly troops". However, he continued his medal work even after he became inconvenient. Many of his designs have won in anonymous banking competitions, but it was ideologically preferred to other artists after identifying who is their author. Harcuba's five-crown still remained in circulation. Its motif with a slight change appeared on the federal five-crown of 1991 and eventually served as a proposal for the czech five-crown of ​​1993, which still clinks in our pockets ...

The set consists of four silver mintages. The first one takes the form of a replica of the socialist five-crown from 1966, the other two are based on Harcuba's unrealized draft coin designs with nominal values of 1 and 2 CZK. These mintages were created by female medalmaker Petra Brodska, DiS. according to the original models borrowed by the Czech National Bank.

The final piece of the puzzle is a commemorative medal dedicated to the personality and work of Jiri Harcuba. Academic sculptor Jiri Dostal, who was Harcuba's student and friend, placed the artist's portrait from the profile on the obverse side and devoted the reverse side to the motifs of his most famous works that are crane arms of the circular five-crown and three-horse chariot of a commemorative coin issued on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the foundation stone of the National Theater.

Each set includes a luxurious wooden etui decorated with Harcuba's self-portrait.