Silver coin 200 Kč Gregor Mendel proof

The silver coin of the Czech National Bank with a nominal value of CZK 200, which boasts top-quality proof, commemorates the 200th anniversary of the birth of Gregor Mendel.

Since the beginning of history, people have wondered in vain how the characteristics of people, animals or plants are inherited from generation to generation. They knew that controlled crossbreeding could achieve desirable traits - faster horses or bigger apples - but there was no way to predict the outcome of such efforts. Gregor Mendel, a Silesian naturalist, monk and later abbot of the Augustinian monastery at Stary Brno, who had been experimenting with crossbreeding plants - especially peas - since 1856, that a guide was discovered. As part of his scientific research, he discovered the basic laws of heredity. Almost all of Mendel's contemporaries ignored the groundbreaking theory, but in 1900 it was rediscovered. Its principles proved to explain heredity in plants and animals, and Mendel was rightly called the father of genetics.

The design by the academic sculptor Zbyněk Fojtů won the art competition of the Czech National Bank. While the reverse side of the coin is dominated by a portrait of Gregor Mendel with glasses, the obverse side presents pea pods. As Mendel was still experimenting with the crossing of bees, you will find a hexagonal composition on both sides of the coin, which evokes the honeycomb. Another important motif is the graphic representation of Mendel's third law of independent selection.

All Czech coins - both commemorative and circulation - are minted by the Czech Mint in Jablonec nad Nisou.