The genius inventor Tesla again on a coin, this time wirelessly

As part of its 30th anniversary celebrations, the Czech Mint is issuing a third coin featuring the physicist and inventor Nikola Tesla. After the first, depicting the dispute with Edison, and the second with the motif of electric shocks, this time the theme of wireless communication is depicted on the coin. Even the penultimate coin of the four-part series depicting the Serbian genius is minted in one troy ounce of silver.

"Tesla's inventions meant a huge leap forward for all of humanity, which is why we at the Czech Mint have decided to cater to investors and collectors - we don't commemorate the physicist with just one coin, but show his brilliant inventions in a four-part series. It also has a higher collecting potential. For similar series in the past period, we recorded up to a 20 percent year-on-year increase in interest, also due to the protection of invested money from inflation," says Aleš Brix, Commercial Director of the Czech Mint.

Wireless power transfer was the next step in Tesla's electric revolution. A genius Serbian physicist proved that energy can be produced and transmitted wirelessly, over long distances. Unfortunately, the world was not ready for Tesla's invention - the electricity available in this way contradicted the plans of his supporters. Banker J.P. Morgan suspected that Tesla wanted to provide wirelessly transmitted energy to everyone for free, so he did not support him in the costly implementation. So Tesla concentrated on the wireless transmission of information and a few years before the Italian Guglielmo Marconi patented his invention. But Marconi made a fortune by transmitting a signal over a distance of several kilometers using radio waves and won the Nobel Prize for it. Tesla sued him for years, and justice was served only half a year after his death, when the US Supreme Court declared Marconi's patents invalid and attributed the authorship of the radio to Nikola Tesla.

Within this series, another silver coin in proof quality will be dedicated to the brilliant physicist and inventor N. Tesla, who studied at the Charles University in Prague. It was he who made it possible to tame the natural element, water. "The final coin in Tesla's four-leaf clover will remind us of the taming of Niagara Falls before the holidays," says press spokesperson Lenka Klimentová.

Scientific ideals, the future of humanity, and a lot of money were at stake in the "war of the currents" to decide what would power the world. Both Thomas Edison, who pioneered direct current, and Nikola Tesla, who came up with alternating current, needed to win politicians and the general public over to their technologies. The World's Fair in Chicago gave them an opportunity to shine, literally. The event to mark the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America was meant to be a showcase of American exceptionalism, so the organizers put out a tender to supply the spectacular public lighting. Tesla's technologies, which were offered to Chicago by industrialist George Westinghouse, eventually proved to be more efficient and cheaper. The city was lit up by tens of thousands of light bulbs and millions of visitors were stunned. Thanks to Tesla, people could watch, for example, the first night football game in history.

“You can store a collection of four coins in this tin collector's case. The lid is decorated with a portrait of Nikola Tesla, from which bursts of electric discharges symbolizing brilliant ideas. An integral part of the box is an attachment with period photographs from Nikola Tesla's album," added Klimentová.

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The author of the coin is the young but very talented medalist Asamat Baltaev, who, despite his age, already has a number of prestigious realizations behind him and successfully competes with much more experienced colleagues. He went to the Czech Republic to study at the instigation of his father, who worked as an engraver in Russia. Today, the thirty-two-year-old native of the Republic of Chuvashia entered the field of engraving at SUPŠ and VOŠ in Turnov at the age of fifteen. Already as a student he participated in competitions. His cloister work with the motif of Rabí Castle was chosen by the Czech Mint for realization in 2012. Immediately after graduating from school, he won the Czech National Bank's competition for a gold commemorative coin from the Bridges cycle, namely the reinforced concrete bridge in Karviná-Darkov. Four years later, he achieved another success, this time on a gold commemorative coin from the Castles cycle. He is also the author of the design of the Czech Lion investment coins, which the Czech Mint has been minting since 2017.