Slovenia · 200th anniversary of the establishment of the Provincial Museum for Carniola, the first museum in Slovenia

Issue date25 Oct 2021

Total mintage1,000,000

EU maximum1,000,000

Editions4

Edge letteringSLOVENIJA •

InscriptionSLOVENIJA / 2021

DesignerLana Semečnik

mintMincovňa Kremnica, š.p., Kremnica / Slovakia

Issue occasion

The coin commemorates the 200th anniversary of the Landesmuseum Krain, the first museum in Slovenia. The design is inspired by the belt plates of the Vače Situla and features the various names the museum bore throughout its history. The belt plates symbolically represent the periods of history preserved by the museum.

The design

The design is inspired by the belt plates of the Vače Situla, one of the finest artefacts of situla art. The belt plates symbolise the various phases of history preserved by the museum for future generations. The coin’s design depicts phases of the museum’s history in the form of the various names it bore throughout its 200-year history. These names are depicted on belt plates as if they were on the Vače Situla. The name of the issuing country, “SLOVENIJA”, and the year of issue, “2021”, are also shown.

The outer ring of the coin features the twelve stars of the European flag.

Background on the topic

The museum was founded in the period after the end of the Napoleonic Illyrian Provinces, when Krain once again belonged to the Austrian Empire. At that time, scholars, civil servants and representatives of the estates of Krain endeavoured to systematically collect antiquities, historical artefacts and natural history specimens from the region. Such collections were rooted in the tradition of the Enlightenment, but also served the study of regional history and culture. A few years after its foundation, the museum was opened to the public.

Its holdings initially covered various fields, including archaeology, history and natural history. In the 19th century, the collections grew through excavations, donations and targeted acquisitions. The present museum building in Ljubljana was constructed towards the end of that century specifically to house the collections. Later, individual sections became organisationally independent; the natural history holdings gave rise to the Slovenian Museum of Natural History. Today, the National Museum of Slovenia focuses primarily on the country’s archaeological and cultural-historical heritage.

The Situla of Vače is a bronze vessel from the Early Iron Age. It was found near Vače in central Slovenia and is dated to around the 6th century BC. Its surface is decorated with several figural friezes depicting scenes. These include processions, a banquet, animals and a duel. The representations were worked into the thin bronze sheet using repoussé technique. Vessels and fittings decorated in this manner are particularly known from the northern Adriatic and eastern Alpine regions.

The connection between this artefact and the museum anniversary points to one of the institution’s central tasks: not merely preserving archaeological objects, but also studying them scientifically and making them accessible to the public. At the same time, the motif links the history of the museum with an era reaching far back beyond the modern history of the state and its institutions in the territory of present-day Slovenia.