Results of the public competition for the design of the national side of a €2 commemorative coin featuring the 100th anniversary of the death of Milan Rastislav Štefánik

First prize (the design selected for the coin)
Peter Valach

Second prize
Karol Ličko

Third prize
Karol Ličko

In November 2017 Národná banka Slovenska (NBS) announced a public competition for the design of the national side of a €2 commemorative coin featuring the 100th anniversary of the death of Milan Rastislav Štefánik. A total of 29 designs by 16 designers were entered in the competition. In April 2018 the designs were evaluated anonymously by NBS’s Committee for the Assessment of Commemorative and Collector Coin Designs. The Committee was assisted in its task by two expert advisers: Bohumila Ferenčuhová from the Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, and Mária Gallová from the M. R. Štefánik Society.

On the Committee’s recommendation, the NBS Bank Board awarded first prize to a design by Peter Valach and approved it as the design for the coin. The Committee praised the high-quality portrait of Štefánik, noting how it clearly captured his personality and that it was sufficiently prominent within the small area of the €2 commemorative coin.

Second prize went to a design by Karol Ličko. The Committee considered the portrait of Štefánik to be just as well done as the portrait in the first-prize-winning design, but also noted that it was smaller and may therefore be less prominent.

Another design by Karol Ličko was awarded third prize. Although also judging this portrait of Štefánik to be accomplished, the Committed noted that it differed from the standard depictions of the subject and that the more recognisable portraits in the first two designs were preferable for a coin that would circulate throughout the euro area.

An additional prize was awarded to Branislav Ronai in recognition of the quality of his design.