The fifth set of two silver thalers from the Czech Mint's Royal Couples series, which pays tribute to important historical couples, is dedicated to John of Luxembourg and Elizabeth of Bohemia.

Wenceslas III was assassinated and the Czech lands were without a king. The Přemyslid dynasty died out unexpectedly by the sword, and a struggle for the crown between the foreign rulers Henry of Carinthia and Rudolf of Habsburg, who claimed the Bohemian throne on the basis of marriages to Přemyslid wives, ensued. The Czech nobles and church leaders did not like either of them, so they chose their own candidate - John of Luxembourg, who was the son of the Roman king and future emperor Henry VII. The means to achieve their goal was to become Elizabeth of Bohemia - the sister of Wenceslas III and the last unmarried Přemyslid woman. Negotiations between the Bohemian grandees and the Counts of Luxembourg were successful, and the marriage of the beautiful eighteen-year-old Elizabeth to the stalwart fourteen-year-old John became an important political event that was to calm the situation in a country wracked by power struggles. However, the relationship of the newly royal couple was not ideal. Elizabeth had inherited the Přemyslid qualities of self-confidence and ambition, but also imperiousness and cunning, and so she often took the initiative in trying to restore rule in the spirit of her dynasty. John, however, did not resemble the idealised Přemyslid rulers and he never got along with the rebellious Bohemian environment, which is why he is often called the foreign king. He could be a persuasive diplomat, who managed to win many territories for the Bohemian kingdom with his charm, but most of all he felt himself to be a knight who did not spare money. The couple's disagreements eventually turned into open hostility. John took his children away from Elizabeth so that she would not set them against him. Elizabeth rebelled and occupied Prague with her army. Although they tried, the king and queen never found their way back to each other...

"In creating the common obverse side of the thalers, I have freely based my design mainly on the well-known busts of the triforium of St. Vitus Cathedral, as well as on the faces preserved in book painting, on seals and on coins. The predominantly negative mutual relationship of this royal couple is expressed by the positioning of the heads. A symbolic motif is the lonely boyish figure of the future Emperor Charles IV. At one point, he became a hostage and, in fact, a prisoner of his father, who wanted to force his mother Elizabeth to be obedient," says academic sculptor Michal Vitanovský. "There is an abundance of well-used themes in the biography of John of Luxembourg, and the king's reverse side captures a sample of his remarkable coinage. In addition to coins made of silver from Kutná Hora, it also depicts John's rare florin, the first gold mintage of the time north of the Alps. The Queen's reverse side is based thematically on her lifelong connection to the glorious past of the Přemyslid family. Elizabeth did not just dwell on nostalgia, but tried to somehow restore the vanished Premyslid glory. However, the changed political situation in Europe did not allow for such a thing," adds the author of the thalers and an expert on Czech history.

The pair of thalers is stored in an elegant wooden box, the lid of which is decorated with the personalities of the king and queen symbolised by chess pieces. The package also includes an illustrated certificate of authenticity with an accompanying word by the author.