The Czech Koruna Issued

JAN 01 1993 · 12:00

A 500 Kčs note overstamped for provisional Czech use, 1993. Between 4 and 7 February the old federal currency was physically marked while the new koruna was prepared. Place: Czech National Bank, Na Příkopě · border crossings Figures: Josef Tošovský, governor of the Czech National Bank · Václav Klaus, prime minister · Alois Rašín (1919), invoked as precedent On the morning of February 8, 1993, the common Czechoslovak koruna ceases to be legal tender on both sides of the new border. The two governments have agreed to a monetary divorce after a brief and unhappy attempt at a currency union. The technique is taken straight from 1919, when Alois Rašín stamped Austro-Hungarian banknotes to give the new Czechoslovakia a currency overnight. Seventy-four years later, the procedure is repeated in reverse. Each Czech citizen exchanges up to four thousand koruna at face value at the bank counter; the rest is stamped, with a paper appliqué bearing a watermark and serial number, and continues to circulate while new banknotes are printed. The Slovaks do the same on their side with a different stamp. The exchange runs four days.