10 Latu Javelin Thrower

Latvia's post-Soviet revival of gold coinage in the 1990s drew deliberately on interwar imagery — the javelin thrower design traces directly to the athletic idealism promoted during the first period of Latvian independence, 1918–1940. The .583 fineness is not an approximation but a precise continuation of the 14-karat standard used in Soviet-era jewelry production, a pragmatic choice that kept domestic refining costs low while the newly reconstituted Bank of Latvia rebuilt its monetary infrastructure.