The Bank of Estonia unveiled (2nd May) the winning design for next year’s commemorative €2 coin which is scheduled to be issued in celebration of the centenary anniversary of the Tartu Peace Treaty. Signed on the 2nd February 1920, the treaty formally recognised Estonian independence, which was won after the Baltic nation fought a war against Russia, following the abdication of Czar Nicholas II in 1917 and the eventual break-up of the Russian Empire. The treaty was signed in Estonia’s second city of Tartu, in the building of the Estonian Students’ Society by representatives of the new Estonian government and by those representing the new Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. The terms stated that ”Russia unreservedly recognises” the independence of the Republic of Estonia de jure (from that moment on) and renounces, in perpetuity, all rights to the territory of Estonia. Ratifications of the treaty were exchanged in Moscow on the 30th March 1920, and it was registered in the League of Nations on the 12th July 1922.
Hover to zoom.
The coin’s design is the work of Ivar Sakk and was approved by the Bank of Estonia’s Supervisory Board after the launch of a public competition to design the coin failed to find an appropriate design. Sakk is a designer and design historian working in Tallinn. He graduated in 1986 from the department of industrial art at the Estonian State Institute of Art. After graduating, he worked as a freelance graphic designer for the Graaf, Vaal Disain, and Sakk & Sakk agencies. Ivar also taught at the Estonian Academy of Arts since 2003, and from 2005 to 2015 he was a professor and head of the department of graphic design. The obverse design of the €2 denomination depicts a stylised tree. The leaves and branches are arranged with the capital letters TARTU RAHU (“Tartu Peace”) incorporated into the overall design. The commemorative date of 02.02.2020 is placed below and to the right edge. There is no mention at present as to where the coin will be produced.
The €2 coin issued in celebration of the centenary anniversary of the Tartu Peace Treaty is scheduled to enter circulation in early 2020. For additional information about this coin and other collector or commemorative coins issued by the Bank of Estonia, please visit their website.
❑
Leave a Reply