Slovenia Set 3 pc—P-12 P-13 & (P-14 or P-31)—20 50 100 toljarev—1992-2003—UNC

You will receive banknotes of these designs in Uncirculated condition. Serial numbers and series vary.

1. P-12 20 Tolarjev 1992 UNC: "Slovenia's Leonardo da Vinci"

Color: Yellow and pink multicolor

Front:

• Polymath ("Renaissance Man", master of many sciences and arts) Janez Vajkard Valvasor
• Profile silhouette consisting of microwriting
• Pair of geodetic compasses used in the science of geodesy: measuring and monitoring the Earth's size, shape, and its orientation in space.

Back:

• Segments of the map of Slovenia alluding to his mapmaking
• Two angels, a vignette from Valvasor's encyclopedia The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola
• Inscription Dulcis ex labore fructus, "Sweet Is The Fruit of Labor"

Engravers: Miljenko Licul, Zvone Kosovelj, Rudi Španzel

Janez Vajkard Valvasor (1641–1693), Slovenia's Leonardo da Vinci

Valvasor was a "Renaissance Man" in every sense. Born in 1641 in Ljubljana, then in the Duchy of Carniola, part of the Austrian Empire, now the capital of Slovenia.

His expertise covered an incredible range of fields:

• Historiography: He wrote the 15-volume encyclopedia The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola (1689), which remains one of the most important historical sources for the region.
• Science: He was a pioneer in the study of karst topography (caves and underground rivers). His explanation of the intermittent Lake Cerknica was so advanced for the time that he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in London.
  
• Cartography (mapmaking): He surveyed and drew detailed maps of Carniola, Croatia, and Carinthia.
• Military: He spent 14 years traveling Europe and serving as a soldier and commander in the Austrian army.

A Legacy of "Labor"
Valvasor’s life is a perfect example of Dulcis ex labore fructus. He spent his entire personal fortune (including selling his castles) to fund the printing and illustrations for his books. While he died in relative poverty, his "fruit" was a permanent cultural foundation for the Slovenian people.

2. P-13 50 Tolarjev 1992 UNC: the Ballistics Scientist

Front:

• Colors: pink, purple and orange; portrait in black
• Mathematician Jurij Vega
• Silhouette consisting of microwriting
• Drawing from Vega's treatise on ballistics Treatise on the Sphere

Back:

• Colors: blue and others
• Solar system
• Academy of Sciences and Arts (SAZU)

Engravers: Miljenko Licul, Zvone Kosovelj, Rudi Španzel

Another Slovenian Renaissance Man, Jurij Vega (1754–1802)

• Logarithmic Tables: His most famous work, Thesaurus Logarithmorum Completus (1794), was a massive collection of mathematical tables. These tables were so accurate that they were used globally by scientists and engineers for over 150 years—well into the 20th century before electronic calculators existed.
  
  
• Calculating Pi (π): In 1789, he calculated π to 140 decimal places, a world record at the time that stood for 52 years. He used the formula:
  1/4 π =5 arctan 1/7 + 2 arctan 1/18 + 3 arctan 1/31
  
  
• Military Ballistics: As a high-ranking officer in the Austrian artillery, he revolutionized how cannons were aimed. He applied his mathematical genius to calculate the trajectories of projectiles, making artillery far more precise.
  
  
• The Metric System: He was a huge advocate and helped introduce the metric system to the Austrian Empire, long before it became a global standard.

Born: 1754 in Zagorica pri Dolskem, Duchy of Carniola (modern-day Slovenia), which had been part of Austria since the 1300s. He was born into a poor peasant family, making his rise to the nobility (becoming a "Baron") even more impressive.

Death: September 26, 1802 (aged 48) in Vienna. His death remains a bit of a mystery; his body was found in the Danube river, and while some called it an accident, others suspected foul play by a jealous rival.

3. 100 Tolarjev (P-14 1992 or P-31 2003) UNC: Architect of Slovenian Art

Note, the 100 tolarjev note was first issued in 1992 and has the catalog no. P-14. The 2003 reprint has the catalog no. P-31

Color: yellow and pink. Portrait in black and white.

Front:

• Impressionist painter Rihard Jakopič
• Silhouette consisting of microwriting
• Painter's palette
• Two paintbrushes

Watermark: Rihard Jakopič

Back:

• Detail from Jakopic's famous painting "The Sun"
• Plan of the former Jakopic Pavilion in Ljubljana, which was the first purpose-built art gallery in Ljubljana.

Engravers: Miljenko Licul, Zvone Kosovelj, Rudi Španzel: Miljenko Licul, Zvone Kosovelj, Rudi Španzel

Rihard Jakopič, Architect of a Distinctly Slovenian Art Scene

Jakopič wasn't just a man who painted; he was a cultural visionary who dragged Slovenian art into the modern era:

• Slovenian Impressionism: Along with three other painters (the "Slovenian Four"), he adapted the French Impressionist style to the specific light and landscape of the Slovenian countryside.
• Cultural Infrastructure: At the time, Ljubljana had no place to show modern art. Jakopič used his own money to build the Jakopič Pavilion in 1908 so that local artists had a home.
• National Identity through Art: Jakopič believed that for Slovenia to be a "real" nation, it needed its own distinct visual language, not just a copy of what was happening in Vienna or Paris.

Jakopič’s life is another example of Dulcis ex labore fructus. He struggled for decades against critics who thought Impressionism was "messy" or "unfinished." By the time he died, he was a national hero. In a bittersweet twist, his beloved art pavilion was demolished by the Communist government in 1962 to make way for a railway line, which is why its appearance on the 100 Tolarjev note is so important to collectors—it is a memorial to a lost piece of history.

Birth: 1869, Ljubljana, Carniola, part of Austria-Hungary
Death: 1943 (aged 74), Ljubljana, Yugoslavia

Slovenia and the Euro (and the Tolar and the Dollar)

Slovenia launched its first own currency, the tolar in October 1991 (plural tolarjev). The word tolar, the same as dollar, is derived from the medieval coin the Thaler, which in turn was named after the city of Joachimsthal, where they were minted, in Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. At first the tolar was pegged to the Deutsche mark at 32 tolarjev to the mark, around 51.5 tolarjev to the US dollar.

By 2007, the tolar was worth one fourth of its initial value in Deutsche marks, at 122.5 tolarjev to the mark. In that year, Slovenia adopted the euro and tolarjev were converted at 239.64 tolarjev to the euro.