Lithuania · 100 Years of Basketball in Lithuania

Issue date21 Apr 2022

Total mintage750,000

EU maximum750,000

Editions2

Edge letteringLAISVĖ ★ VIENYBĖ ★ GEROVĖ ★

InscriptionLIETUVA / 1922-2022

DesignerEgidijus Rapolis

mintUAB Lietuvos monetų kalykla, Vilnius (Lithuania)

Issue occasion

The commemorative coin honors 100 years of basketball in Lithuania. The design shows the outline of the map of Lithuania in the form of a basketball court, thus referencing the basketball tradition dating back to 1922. Arranged in a semicircle around it are the inscription “LIETUVA” and the years “1922–2022”.

The design

The coin design depicts the outline of the map of Lithuania as a basketball court, symbolizing that basketball has been played in Lithuania for 100 years. Arranged in a semicircle around the centrally positioned design are the inscription “LIETUVA” (Lithuania), the years “1922-2022” and the mint mark of the Lithuanian Mint.

The twelve stars of the European flag are depicted on the coin’s outer ring.

Background on the topic

The starting point of Lithuanian basketball history is considered to be the first official men’s basketball game, played in Kaunas on 23 April 1922. In the following years, the sport spread through schools, higher education institutions and clubs. Support also came from Lithuanians returning from the United States, where they had already gained experience with basketball.

As early as the interwar period, the Lithuanian national team achieved international success. It won the European Championships in 1937 and 1939. The 1939 tournament was held in Kaunas, where a sports hall was built especially for the occasion. One of the defining players was Frank Lubin, born in the United States and known in Lithuania as Pranas Lubinas. The successes gave the then still young Lithuanian state an opportunity to gain international visibility.

After the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, Lithuanian athletes were unable to compete under their own flag for decades. Many of them, however, played in selection teams of the Soviet Union. The club Žalgiris Kaunas played a special role. In Lithuania, its matches against the Moscow Army Sports Club ZSKA were often understood beyond the realm of sport as a symbolic contest with the Soviet central power. In the 1980s, Žalgiris won the Soviet championship three times in succession. One of the best-known players of this period was Arvydas Sabonis.

After the restoration of state independence, Lithuania returned to the Olympic Games in 1992 with its own team and won the bronze medal in men’s basketball. Further Olympic bronze medals followed in 1996 and 2000; in 2003, Lithuania became European champion again.

The anniversary therefore served not only as a reminder of the introduction of a sport. Basketball is closely connected with Lithuania’s international representation, club traditions and experiences from the period of Soviet rule as well as renewed independence. This social and historical rootedness explains the choice of the theme for a national commemorative coin.