Type Silver coin Material Silver 925° Issuance Date 2005 Month June Nominal Value 1 Ls Maximum Mintage 5 000 Quality Proof Weight (g) 31.47 Diameter (mm) 38.61 Graphic design Arvids Priedite Plaster model Minted Koninklijke Nederlandse Munt (Netherlands) Price: € 120.00 Add to cart available: 1

Obverse

A dog with a lantern tied to its tail is depicted on a dull surface in the central field of the coin. It is surrounded by a row of seven flying ducks, with Baron Münchhausen clutching at the last one, against a smooth background. The inscription 2005 is arranged in a semicircle at the top of the coin; a semicircular inscription VIENS SIMTS SANTĪMU (one hundred santims) is in the left lower part of the coin.

Reverse

The images of Baron Münchhausen's stories are depicted in a circle against a smooth background: the Baron himself with a rifle in his hands and a hunting dog at his feet, a pheasant, two hares, a deer and a wild boar. They are encircled by inscriptions BARONS MINHAUZENS and K.F.H. FREIHERR VON MÜNCHHAUSEN, separated by a dot, against a dull background.

Edge

Inscriptions LATVIJAS BANKA (Bank of Latvia) and LATVIJAS REPUBLIKA (Republic of Latvia), separated by a dot.

As children, no doubt, we all have read about the Baron von Münchhausen's jolly exploits and laughed about his hunting adventures - the ride on a fired canon ball, or the voyage in the belly of a whale. But not all of us are aware of the fact that the bold and witty officer was a real person Karl Friedrich Hieronymous von Münchhausen (1720-1797) who as a page accompanying Prince Anton Ulrich arrived in Russia from Germany in 1737 and later was invited by his friend, Baltic landlord Georg Gustav von Dunten, to the Dunte manorhouse to duck hunting. However, the hunter and adventurer himself was hit by Cupid's arrow and on February 2, 1744 married his friend's daughter Jacobina von Dunten. Münchhausen lived in Vidzeme till 1750, and it is in the vicinity of Dunte that many of his exploits, about which stories were later told in the family and to friends at a glass of wine in the pub, took place. Some people kept these stories in mind, while others even wrote them down. About Münchhausen's most favourite dog, with a lantern tied to its tail for the master to be able to go hunting in the darkness of the night. About the blind wild boar that walked in the steps of its piglet, catching at its tail. About the tree with wonderful sweet cherries growing between the antlers of a deer that gave the hunter, who had used cherry stones instead of bullets, both the roast and cherry sauce. And about the ducks that having swallowed pieces of bacon tied to a string took off like a string of beads and brought the adventurer straight home.

This was how the Baron Münchhausen was reborn as a literary character in 1785. The authorship is still questioned today. Was it R. E. Raspe, or G. A. Bürger, or, including the Baron himself, all three of them (the so called wonderful triumvirate)? Anyway, the book "Adventures of Münchhausen", which has become a part of the golden fund of classical literature, won fame for the Baron, which, albeit being slightly comic, was, above all else, the world fame.