Slovakia

2022

Commemorative coin

The 300th anniversary of the construction of continental Europe’s first atmospheric steam engine for draining mines

Official Journal of the European Union

The design depicts an atmospheric steam engine for draining water from mines, the one constructed in the mining town of Nová Baňa in 1722 as the first of its kind in continental Europe. It was designed and built by English engineer Isaac Potter, whose facsimile signature is inscribed sideways, on two lines, in the lower left part of the design. On the right side of the engine, again written sideways, are the name of the issuing country ‘SLOVENSKO’ and, to its right, the years ‘1722’ and ‘2022’ separated by a medial dot. Next to the left edge of the coin’s inner section, positioned one above the other, are the mint mark of the Kremnica Mint (Mincovňa Kremnica), consisting of the letters ‘MK’ placed between two dies, and the stylised initials of the national side designer, Peter Valach. The coin’s outer ring depicts the 12 stars of the European flag.

Additional information

The coin motif is based on a vivid technical drawing by the designer of the steam engine, the English engineer Isaac Potter (1690-1735). The mechanism of the atmospheric steam engine, which became known as the 'Potterian Fire Engine', is based on an invention by the Englishman Thomas Newcomen (1663-1725), which was first used in a coal mine in Staffordshire, England, in 1712. In 1722 - 300 years ago - Isaac Potter, together with the Austrian architect Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach, built the first 'fire engine' on the European continent in Königsberg near Schemnitz in the then Kingdom of Hungary, now Nová Baňa in Slovakia, which was used in gold ore mining and pumped mine water out of the mountain. The efficiency of the engine was only 0.5 %; nevertheless, it was not until the end of the 18th century that the Newcomen steam engines were superseded by the steam engines of the Scottish inventor James Watt (1736-1819), which achieved an efficiency of up to 3 %. In 1887, the mines in Königsberg/Nová Baňa were closed down.

Edge lettering

Designer