Estonia

2019

Commemorative coin

Song Festival’s 150-year anniversary

Official Journal of the European Union

The design is inspired by the Song Celebration procession, which moves like the waves on the sea with cheers of pride and joy and a panoply of national dress. The design unites music, national costumes, and the various sites of the great and powerful Song Celebration of the nation by the sea. The design also features the first notes of the Estonian national anthem and, at the bottom, the words ‘Laulupidu 150’ (Song Celebration 150). At the top is the year of issuance ‘2019’ and underneath the name of the issuing country ‘EESTI’. The coin’s outer ring depicts the 12 stars of the European flag.

Additional information

In 2003 the Baltic Song Festival was recognised by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage within the programme of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. The coin, designed by a pupil from Törva, shows the faces of three singing children over curved lines with the first notes of the Estonian national anthem and a scarf with the pattern "XOXOXOXOXOXO" (which in net jargon means "hugs and kisses") - inspired by rows of celebrants moving like waves of the sea, their shouts of joy and national costumes.

Edge lettering

Designer