In 2016 the Czech National Bank opens a new thematic series of gold coins with a nominal value of CZK 5000 and the topic of the Czech castles, which replaced the extremely successful series of ten Czech bridges. In the following five years, each year two coins weighing one half troy ounce in a stunning quality proof will be released. The motif of the first coin will be a Gothic castle Kost.

The Kost is one of the few surviving medieval castles in Czech Republic. It is located in the Bohemian Paradise near the village of Libošovice in Jičín district and interesting is, that it does not stand on the hill, but in the valley on the sandstone headland. Kost’s  history dates back to the year 1349 when there was, based on available information, built a fort by Beneš of Wartenberg. Since then, the castle changed its owner several times, until it came into the possession of the Italian-Czech aristocratic family dal Borgo-Netolice. It was nationalized after World War II and became a museum of Gothic and Renaissance art and after forty years was returned in the restitution. Now its owner is Giovanni Kinský dal Borgo. Today, you can attend a classic tour at Kost, and because the lord of the castle is a collector of antique firearms, many have become part of the exposition.

27 artists signed up to the competition of the CNB, for an artistic design of 5000CZK gold coin with the motive of Kost. The academic sculptor Zbyněk Fojtů won the competition. 

He dedicated the reverse of the coin to an illustration of the castle with a view of the famous White Tower with a trapezoidal layout, an inscription KOST CASTLE and the year 2016.

The obverse is dominated by a masterful composition of the Gothic portal of the castle chapel and heraldic emblems of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, which complements the texts CZECH REPUBLIC, CASTLES and the CZK 5000.

a significant appreciation potential - just as it was with the Gothic bridge in Písek or paper mill Velké Losiny from the previous five-year cycles.