We commemorate the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the High School of Glassmaking in Železný Brod in 2020. The Czech Mint published the half-ounce gold medal which is part of a free cycle of the most beautiful unrealized proposals entered in the competitions of the Czech National Bank.

Jablonec nad Nisou was the centre of the glass industry in the 19th century and sold 65% of the world's jewellery production. Jablonec paid taxes as the entire crown country of Dalmatia in 1911. However, Jablonec traders would not be anything without the neighboring Železný Brod - a small town that is a crossroad on the way to the Jizera Mountains, the Giant Mountains and the Bohemian Paradise. Glass beads, buttons, rings, necklaces, handbags or chandelier trimmings were made by local workers for them. A quarter of the district was engaged in the production of jewellery. The glassmakers from Železný Brod, of course, wanted to become independent, and the opening of the original Czech glassmaking school was to help them. This idea originated before the First World War, but met with opposition from Jablonec exporters, who were mostly German. The High School of Applied Arts for Glassmaking was founded in Železný Brod in 1920, at the time of the national enthusiasm of the First Republic, as a counterpoint to the older German institutions in Nový Bor and Kamenický Šenov. It gained an excellent reputation thanks to renowned teachers and talented students. It enchanted not only at home, but especially at prestigious exhibitions abroad, where, for example, it attracted by unique glass figurines. Teaching at the largest glassmaking school in Europe, which includes a glassworks, includes almost all hot and cold techniques of art glass processing, today and young people have been acquiring not only artistic, craft and technical skills, but also a sense of enduring values for a hundred years …

The artistic design of the commemorative medal was processed by the academic sculptor Zbyněk Fojtů, who won the third place for "a successful composition of various types of glass works "  in the Czech National Bank competition. You will find these works on both sides of the medal.

The schedule of issuance counts only 99 pieces. Each medal is hand-numbered on the edge and supplemented with a special certificate of authenticity, which tells the story of the glass school.