The last gold coin of the Czech Mint from the four-part miniseries commemorating the events of the “Prague Spring“ is dedicated to Czechoslovak emigration.

In the first hours of the occupation of Czechoslovakia, a large emigration wave began. People who had no idea what the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops would bring them fled abroad without passports. Thanks to the relaxation in 1968, a record number of Czechoslovakians spent their holidays abroad, and even many of them decided not to return to their homeland. It was possible to cross the border until 8 October 1969, when the normalisation government banned to travel. By the time the benevolence of the border guards ended, some 150,000 people from all levels of society had fled Czechoslovakia, but it was mainly the young, skilled and educated who left. The West only lukewarmly condemned the invasion because it had other things to worry about - memories of the recent Caribbean crisis were still vivid, Europe was full of student unrest, and protests against the protracted war in Vietnam were growing in America. Yet Czechoslovak refugees received a warm welcome. They found asylum in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and the USA. At first, the Communists considered the emigrants as enemies of the regime - their property was confiscated and their families persecuted. Czechoslovakia softened its attitude and gave citizens who had been abroad illegally the opportunity to return at the end of the 1970. However, few took advantage of this. Families remained separated and almost 300,000 people had left the Czechoslovakia by 1989…

The reverse side of the coin, which is the work of the medal maker Mgr. Art. Miroslav Hrice, Art. D., is dominated by the number 68, which refers to the fateful year. The figure of eight disintegrates and turns into a flock of birds flying away to safety. The composition of the reverse side is completed by the Czechoslovak flag and the inscription EMIGRATION 68. The obverse side of the coin then follows the reverse - it presents a torn barbed wire and birds flying to freedom. As the coins of the Czech Mint are issued with the foreign licence of the island of Niue, the obverse side bears its national emblem, the nominal value TEN DOLLARS (NZD) and the year of issue 2023.

You can store the complete collection of four coins with the motifs of the revolutionary year 1968 in a collector's case which you can also find in the offer of the Czech Mint.