EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Forum, History, Latvia

The coins ranked as winners in different categories (Best Gold Coin, Best Silver Coin, Best Bi-Metallic Coin, etc.) in the first round of voting will compete for the title of the Coin of the Year. All in all for the second round of voting, the panel of judges selected 10 winning coins, with the Bank of Latvia's dedication to the Baltic Way among them. The results will be published in January 2016.

"The Coin of the Year" is often deemed an equivalent to the Academy Awards (Oscars) in the film industry. The Bank of Latvia participates in this coin competition on a regular basis and with good results. Most significantly, in 2010, the gold Coin of Latvia topped the Best Gold category and also won the 2010 Coin of the Year Award. Since 2000, such coins as "Millennium", "Destiny", "Fight for Freedom" and "Fog Mists the Pane" have won awards in various categories. Last year, the coin dedicated to the German composer Richard Wagner, issued by the Bank of Latvia in 2103, was bestowed world's Best Silver Coin honors.

The EUR 5 silver collector coin marking the anniversary of the Baltic Way has been designed by Visvaldis Asaris (graphic design) and Ligita Franckevica (plaster model) and is still on sale at cashier's offices of the Bank of Latvia. The coin was struck by "Koninklijke Nederlandse Munt" (the Netherlands).

The coin is a dedication to the peaceful demonstration of August 23, 1989, unique on an international scale, when about 2 million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined their hands to form a human chain, which for 15 minutes was spanning over 600 kilometers through the capital cities of Tallinn, Vilnius and Riga. This action drew the attention of the entire world, highlighting the historical injustice and demonstrating that the idea of freedom and independence is very much alive in the hearts and minds of the three nations. In the lexicon of non-violent struggle, the message of Awakening, Popular Front and Singing Revolution was supplemented by another striking entry – the Baltic Way. It was like an informal referendum that demonstrated to the occupation power, in an explicit manner, how united the Baltic nations were in their desire to regain freedom and renew independence of which they were once deprived.

The images on the coin are a braid with ribbons in the colors of national flags of the three Baltic States woven in it and a tree trunk with exposed roots.