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| These are Medallic
Coinage issued by the Legation of Latvia to commemorating the 70th anniversary of Independence in
1988 and another set of coins were issued next year in 1989. |
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The Latvian Legation in Washington DC served as the
official diplomatic representative of the Latvian Republic after it was
occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940. It acted as the Latvian government
in exile and was recognized by the United States, Canada, Great Britain
and many other countries, until Latvia regained its independence in
1991. After Latvia regained independence the Legation became the
official Latvian embassy to the United States. In the late 1980s the
Legation issued a limited number of coins. The first issue, dated 1988,
commemorated the 70th anniversary of Latvian independence. The obverse
depicted the Latvian arms and the reverse pictured the Latvian Monument
to Freedom, which has stood in Riga, the nation’s capital, since
1935. The monument was the symbol of Latvia's struggle for freedom. The
38.25mm coins were denominated as 1 Trojas Unce and were issued in
bronze, silver and gold. Unfortunately when the design was faxed to the
mint, a small spot made the word “TEVZEMEI” on the reverse of the coin
appear as “TEVZEMEJ”. The error was not discovered until the first
shipment of coins were received by the Legation. Production was
immediately halted and The Legation tried to get back the error coins
that were already sent to customers. Only 78 of the error coins were
issued in Bronze. Some uniface pattern coins also exists. The set
features three different designs: the obverse with the Latvian arms,
and the reverses with the Latvian Monument to Freedom with both the
error spelling of “TEVZEMEJ” and the corrected version spelled “TEVZEMEI”. Each
of the three designs is struck in four different metals: nickel-silver,
bronze, brass and copper. Only two of these uniface patterns are
listed in the Unusual World Coins book, the copper obverse (Bruce #TS1)
with a mintage of only 10 pieces and nickel-silver obverse (Bruce #TS2)
with a mintage of 35 pieces. Because most of these patterns were
distributed as single coins, it is likely that there are only two
complete uniface pattern sets available, probably some still with the
mint archives. Also available is a 1988 1 Trojas Unce .999 fine silver
Piefort (double-thickness, weight 2 troy ounces) with the spelling
error. It has a mintage of just 43 pieces. In 1989 the Latvian Legation
issued a coin commemorating the 350th anniversary of Latvians arriving
in America. The reverse pictures a sailing ship and the Latvian arms on
the obverse. The coin is denominated as 1 Trojas Unce, contains 1 troy
ounce of .999 fine silver and has a mintage of 3500 pieces. |
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| Obverse
legend: LATVIJAS REPUBLIKA with supported arms. Reverse shows sun with a
monument and date 1918-1988. In 1988 one ounce coins with 38.25mm diameter
were produced in three metals, Bronze, Silver 7000 pieces and Gold 495
pieces. |
| In 1989 they
also produced another series of coins having the same obverse side with
supported arms but different reverse side, which shows a ship. These coins
were produced in three metal having the weight of 31.10g each. 3500 pieces
in .999 Silver, 350 pieces in Gold and 350 pieces in .999 Palladium. |
| All the above
coins mentioned can also be seen in Krause Publication "Unusual Coins of the
World", 4th edition on page 294. |
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Micro-Nations |
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Chiefa Coins |
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