20 Korun 1919

This note holds a specific place in Czech cultural history not for its denomination but for its designer. Alfons Mucha, by 1919 one of the most internationally recognized graphic artists alive, contributed designs for several of the new Czechoslovak state's first banknotes — a deliberate act of nation-building through art at a moment when the republic was barely months old, having emerged from the Habsburg collapse in October 1918.

The Ministry of Finance, rather than a central bank, served as issuer because Czechoslovakia's banking institutions were still being constituted. Emergency printing was handled domestically in Prague under considerable logistical pressure, as the new state needed to establish a distinct currency fast to prevent Austrian and Hungarian notes from dominating circulation.

Mucha took no fee for his banknote work — he considered it a gift to his country.