Edvard Beneš, 1884—1948, replaced Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the first President of independent Czechoslovakia in office in 1935. Between 1918 and 1935 he served as the minister of foreign affairs. In 1938, after the Munich Pact (also called by Czechs and Slovaks the Munich Diktat) he abdicated and emigrated to London where he founded the government-in-exile in 1940. He fought for his country at home and abroad for many years and he certainly deserves the big thank-you which Czech Mint expressed in the form of a silver medal dedicated to Edvard Beneš. It is the second item in the collector series titled Czechoslovak Presidents.

The design of the medal was created by academic sculptor Jiří Dostál. The obverse side features the effigy of the President together with his name, years of birth and death and the text PŘEDSTAVITEL ČESKOSLOVENSKÉHO ODBOJE (Representative of Czechoslovak resistance). The reverse contains a graphic depicting the coat-of-arms of the Czechoslovak Republic which partially covers the historical map. The composition is complemented with text PREZIDENT ČESKOSLOVENSKA (President of Czechoslovakia) and also the years when Edvard Beneš headed the Republic. Let’s commemorate together with Czech Mint the happy and sad milestones of the new history of our country and start a collection of nine great medals from the series Czechoslovak Presidents!