We commemorate the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the Věstonice Venus in 2025. To mark this occasion, the Czech Mint has issued a half-ounce gold medal, which is part of a series of the most beautiful unrealized designs submitted to competitions organized by the Czech National Bank.

The Věstonice Venus, found in 1925 during archaeological excavations in southern Moravia, immediately became a sensation. The nearly 30,000-year-old figurine of a naked woman with curves is the oldest known piece of fired clay in the world and thus evidence of the very beginnings of pottery. This tiny memento of mammoth hunters bears witness to the artistic sensibility of our earliest ancestors and their skill. The figurine was made from a single piece of ceramic dough – loess containing fragments of rock and small Jurassic fossils mixed with water. Although the appearance of this prehistoric ideal of beauty is simplified at first glance, closer inspection reveals incredible details. It is possible that the grooves on Venus's back represent tattoos or scarification – artistic scarring of the skin. There are four shallow oval indentations on the top of the head, suggesting that the figurine once had a feather headdress. The fingerprint above the left buttock, which must have been made before the clay was fired, clearly belonged to a small child, and it is therefore possible that the Venus of Věstonice was not a ritual amulet, but a toy... The fragile original offers many answers, but even more questions. One of the most valuable Czech museum exhibits, whose cultural and historical value is incalculable, attracting further examination, but could easily be destroyed if handled carelessly...

A design by academic sculptor Zbyněk Fojtů served as a model for the minting of a commemorative medal. It won second place in the Czech National Bank's art competition, with the expert committee praising its "perfect rendition of the Věstonice Venus, typical geometric decorative elements in rectangular fields, and fragments of fired animal and human figurines."

Only 99 pieces were minted. Each medal is also hand-numbered on the edge.