The year 2023 marks the 100th anniversary of Jaroslav Hašek's death. A large silver coin of the Czech Mint, weighing one kilogram of pure silver, pays tribute to the great writer.

A bohemian, boisterous, joker, provocateur, recessionist, mystifier, vagabond, anarchist, drunkard, bigamist, legionnaire, Bolshevik, politician, journalist, poet and humorist, who wrote over 1500 short stories, sketches, satires, cabaret acts, humoresques, feuilletons and articles. For someone who spent five years in the war and lived to be only forty, Jaroslav Hašek left behind a remarkable body of work. His strongest points were wit and irony. He relished the characters of folk wise guys who could convey profound ideas in an entertaining way. In his bizarre stories he could exacerbate social contrasts to the point of grotesque and sarcastic mockery. He emphasized nonsense and randomness, thus approaching Dadaist aspirations for a new art. All of this was also a determining factor in his seminal work of 1921-1923, which was translated into 58 languages over the course of the century... A patriotic simpleton super-arbitrated for stupidity, or a howler who deliberately drove people mad at the dawn of war with his incredible interpretations? Such is the beloved and reviled hero of the four-part novel The Fate of the Good Soldier Svejk during the World War. The iconic story, which mocked the militarism of the time while highlighting humour as a means of survival in crisis situations, was sadly left unfinished, but still made its author one of the world's 100 most read writers…

The author of the majestic coin is the academic sculptor Majka Wichnerová. She dedicated the reverse side to the portrait, name and life years of Jaroslav Hašek. The obverse side presents the titles of Hašek's most famous works - OSUDY DOBRÉHO VOJÁKA ŠVEJKA, HUMORESKY, DVA TUCTY POVÍDEK, MŮJ OBCHOD SE PSY, MÁJOVÉ VÝKŘIKY, TRAMPOTY PANA TENKRÁTA. As the coins of the Czech Mint are issued under the license of a foreign issuer, which is the island of Niue, the obverse bears its necessary elements - the coat of arms, the face value of 80 DOLLARS (NZD) and the year of issue 2023.

The coin is placed in a luxurious wooden etui and supplemented with a special numbered certificate of authenticity.