Latvia's 5 Lati was struck during the country's first period of genuine monetary stability, the Lats having been introduced in 1922 to replace the worthless Latvian ruble at a rate that wiped out wartime inflation in a single legislative stroke. The Bank of Latvia contracted the work to the Huguenin Brothers mint in Le Locle, Switzerland — a common arrangement for newly independent Baltic states that lacked domestic minting infrastructure.
Production halted after 1932, just as the global depression was contracting Latvian export revenues. Soviet occupation in 1940 ended the independent currency entirely.
Latvia's 5 Lati was struck during the country's first period of genuine monetary stability, the Lats having been introduced in 1922 to replace the worthless Latvian ruble at a rate that wiped out wartime inflation in a single legislative stroke. The Bank of Latvia contracted the work to the Huguenin Brothers mint in Le Locle, Switzerland — a common arrangement for newly independent Baltic states that lacked domestic minting infrastructure.
Production halted after 1932, just as the global depression was contracting Latvian export revenues. Soviet occupation in 1940 ended the independent currency entirely.