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20 Litu Vytautas the Great
| Issuer | Lietuvos Bankas (Bank of Lithuania) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1930 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 20 Litų |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | LIETUVOS BANKAS DVIDEŠIMT LITŲ LIETUVOS BANKAS VIENAS LITAS TURI 0,150462 GRAMŲ GRYNO AUKSO. KAUNAS, 1930 * VYTAUTO * DIDZIOJO m. LIEPOS m. 5 d. (Translation: Lithuanian Bank Twenty Litu Bank of Lithuania One Litas contains 0.150462 grams of pure gold. Kaunas, July 5, 1930.) |
| Reverse description | Brown on light underprint. A central harbour vignette presents a cargo vessel at anchor in the port of Klaipėda, with masts and port infrastructure visible along the waterfront. A standing allegorical Liberty figure occupies the left side, and a decorative geometric panel bearing the numeral 20 anchors the right; ornate border work with interlaced guilloche frames the entire composition. |
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| Comments |
The 1930 series marked a deliberate cultural statement by interwar Lithuania — the 500th anniversary of the death of Grand Duke Vytautas fell in 1930, and the entire commemorative year was leveraged to assert a continuous national identity reaching back to medieval greatness. Bradbury Wilkinson's engraving work is typically fine for the period, and the firm's long relationship with smaller European states made them a reliable choice for a bank still establishing its institutional footing.
Lithuania's monetary independence was itself recent — the Litas had only stabilized in 1922 after the hyperinflationary chaos following the First World War. The P#27 is the sole denomination in the series dedicated exclusively to the Vytautas theme.