Bank of Latvia

5 euro

22,0 g

35,0 mm

Silver 925°

10 000 pcs.

Proof, with pad-printing on the reverse

Visvaldis Asaris (graphical design) Ligita Franckeviča (plaster model)

Koninklijke Nederlandse Munt (the Netherlands)

Obverse: a braid with ribbons in the colours of national flags of the three Baltic Republics woven in it; the inscriptions “5 euro” and “BALTIJAS CEĻŠ 1989” and the year of issue, 2014. Reverse: a vertical image of a tree trunk with exposed roots; two semi-circled inscriptions – ATMOSTAS BALTIJA (Awakening Baltics) on the left and LIETUVA LATVIJA EESTI (Lithuania Latvia Estonia) on the right.

The idea of freedom is one for which people have always been willing to pay the highest price. In Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania the yearning for freedom found a powerful expression at the end of the 1980s. On 23 August 1989 at 7 p.m., about two million residents of the Baltic countries joined hands forming a 600-kilometre-long human chain that joined Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius for 15 minutes, protesting against the Soviet occupation, which had originated in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact 50 years ago. This unique action drew the attention of the entire world, highlighting the historical injustice and asserting that the idea of freedom and independence is very much alive in the minds and hearts of the three Baltic nations.