The silver coin of the Czech National Bank with a nominal value of 200 CZK, which is minted in quality standard, is issued on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the appointment of Josef Karel Matocha as Archbishop of Olomouc.

Josef Matocha reached the peak of his career in the spring of 1948, when the Pope appointed him Archbishop of Olomouc. He immediately set to work zealously, but he knew that the struggle with the communist ideology that had recently taken over Czechoslovakia and which hated religion would be unequal. He preached and spoke several times a day, visited schools and races, and amazed everyone who knew him as a professor of unremarkable philosophy with his zeal. The regime arrested the archbishop's closest associates and sentenced them to years of punishment on Easter in 1950. Josef Matocha himself did not stand trial, but nevertheless became a prisoner in his own residence - under the constant surveillance of the State Security. His world was reduced to a reception room, an office and a bedroom. Telephone, newspapers, books, correspondence, visits - all were forbidden to him. The StB did not even allow him to attend his own sister's funeral. Despite the psychological terror, however, he did not become a puppet of the Communists - he refused to resign and to appoint canons chosen by the regime. He did not stop defending his faith and eventually paid the ultimate price. He died of a heart attack because the StB refused to give him medical care after eleven years of isolation in 1961...

The design of the medal maker Mgr. Marie Šeborová won the art competition of the Czech National Bank. The reverse side belongs to a faithful portrait of Josef Matocha, supplemented with the emblem of the archbishopric of Olomouc. The obverse side presents an imaginative composition dominated by the symbols of martyrdom in the form of a cross and a crown of thorns.

All Czech coins - both commemorative and circulation - are minted by the Czech Mint in Jablonec nad Nisou.