"Sometimes I say that twilight is poetry. It is possible - there must always be twilight to start dawn, " said Josef Kainar, one of our most prominent poets of the 20th century. The Czech National Bank issues the silver coin 200 CZK of exceptional quality proof on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth.

As a young high school student, Josef Kainar devoted himself mainly to music and he played several instruments in jazz bands. Later, he became a contributor to the Student Magazine, where he met a number of poets of his generation and so he dedicated himself to poetry. His verses were influenced mainly by existentialism. He tried to portray a world of skepticism, using irony bordering on mockery, an informal language that flirted with vulgarism and lyrics that were given a story-telling approach. Moreover, his love of music gave poetry extraordinary singing. All of this is reflected, for example, in the collection "New Myths", including the Kainar's most famous poem “Cut of the little boy’s hair”.

This important work became the main motif of the coins’ reverse side made by the experienced medal maker Vojtěch Dostál DiS. The expert committee of the CNB competition awarded him the first place "for the high quality portrait of Josef Kainar and for the extraordinary harmony of the reverse and obverse sides thanks to the use of the non-traditional type of script". The composition is complemented by the inscriptions 200 CZK, CZECH REPUBLIC, JOSEF KAINAR, 1917-2017 and an open book.