Slovakia · 300th anniversary of the construction of the first steam engine for pumping mine water in continental Europe

Issue date5 Oct 2022

Total mintage1,000,000

EU maximum1,000,000

Editions3

Edge letteringSLOVENSKÁ REPUBLIKA + ★ + Linden leaf + ★

InscriptionISAAC POTTER / SLOVENSKO / 1722 / 2022 / MK / PV

DesignerPeter Valach

mintMincovna Kremnica, š.p., Kremnica / Slovakia

Issue occasion

The coin commemorates the 300th anniversary of the construction of the first steam engine for mining on the European continent. The design shows the machine used in 1722 in the mining town of Nová Baňa to pump out mine water, as well as a facsimile of the signature of its English designer Isaac Potter. The years “1722” and “2022” are also depicted.

The design

The coin design depicts a steam engine for pumping mine water, which was first used on the European mainland in 1722 in the mining town of Nová Baňa. The engine was designed and built by the English engineer Isaac Potter, whose signature can be seen vertically on the left as a two-line facsimile in the lower part of the coin’s inner disc. To the right of the steam engine are, likewise vertically, the name of the issuing state, “SLOVENSKO”, and, to its right, the years “1722” and “2022”, separated by a dot. At the left edge of the coin’s inner disc, the mintmark “MK” of the Kremnica Mint (Mincovňa Kremnica), positioned between two minting dies, and the stylized initials of the designer of the national side, Peter Valach, can be seen one above the other. The twelve stars of the European flag are depicted on the coin’s outer ring.

Background on the topic

Nová Baňa, known in German as Königsberg, is one of the historic mining towns of present-day central Slovakia. Gold and silver ores were mined there in particular. As in many mines that were becoming deeper, infiltrating groundwater posed a major technical problem. Conventional pumps were powered by people, animals or water wheels. Their performance, however, depended on local conditions and especially on an adequate water supply.

The installation built in Nová Baňa was based on the principle of the atmospheric steam engine associated with the English inventor Thomas Newcomen. Steam was fed into a cylinder and then condensed by cooling. The resulting vacuum allowed the external air pressure to move a piston. Via a rocking beam, this movement was transferred to pump rods in the shaft. Unlike later machines associated with James Watt, this early type did not primarily serve as a universal source of power for factories, but above all for mine dewatering.

Isaac Potter was an English technician who transferred machine technology originating in England to the then Kingdom of Hungary (Königreich Ungarn) within the Habsburg monarchy. He was not the inventor of the underlying steam-engine principle, but adapted the installation to its site of operation and directed its construction. His work thus represents the early cross-border exchange of technical knowledge.

The use of the machine took place during a period in which the mining industry was seeking ways to reach greater mining depths. At that time, steam engines were not yet widely used as power machines; their introduction was complex and required expertise in mechanical engineering, metalworking and mining operations.

The coin’s commemorative subject therefore links the Slovak mining tradition with an early chapter in the history of European technology and industrialisation. It commemorates not only a single installation, but also the transfer to continental Europe of a technology initially developed in England.