Gold Half-Ounce Medal First Defenestration of Prague - proof

Six centuries have passed since the first Prague defenestration triggered the Hussite wars. The Czech Mint issued a half-ounce gold medal as part of a free cycle of the most beautiful unrealized designs submitted to the competitions of the Czech National Bank in order to commemorate the key events of Czech history.

When the Catholic Church burned to death Master Jan Hus in 1415, it was convinced that his reform ideas had burned with him. It had no idea how deeply they had taken root in the Czech lands, and how heavily believers would bear the death of their beloved teacher. The people were listening to wandering Hussite preachers, and there were disputes over the churches among the proponents and opponents of the Caliphic ideas in the cities, and the Catholic priests were expelled from their tabernacles. Czech King Wenceslas IV. initially protected the Hussites and stayed out of the question of religious disputes. But when his brother, King Sigismund, threatened to lose his throne and when the Hussites allowed him to dictate his demands in public, he decided to intervene. He ordered the Hussite priests to banish from the churches they had occupied, and he established an anti-Hussite-oriented council in the New Town that immediately began to persecute the followers of the chalice. Jan Želivský was one of the Hussite preachers who was expelled from his church. A former Premonstratensian monk and a fanatical advocate of reform teaching uttered a flaming speech on July 30, 1419.. Angered crowd went to St. Stephen, broke the door and led Želivsky back to his church. The masses then accepted not only the hosts symbolizing the Lord's body, but also the wine representing his blood. Meanwhile, the New Town councilors were gathered together to discuss how to stop the riots. But a crowd led by Želivsky had arrived under the town hall windows, demanding the release of his brothers from prison. When the councilors headed by the Burgrave refused, the crowd overcame the guards and burst into the building. Officers who had not been killed were thrown out of the windows by the Hussites at the spikes. When Wenceslas IV. heard about defenestration, he suffered a brain stroke. He did not live to see the Hussite wars, which immediately seized Europe,...

The commemorative medal was designed by the academic sculptor Zbyněk Fojtů, who received the third prize in the Czech National Bank competition for "the harmony of both sides and the description of the Hussite theme from the Jensk Code". The obverse side bears an armed crowd looking at a Hussite monstrance carried by a priest. The reverse side presents the Calypso Battalion and the spear.

Each of only 99 medals is hand-numbered on the edge and supplemented by a special certificate of authenticity that tells the story of the First Prague defenestration.