Stories of Our History

Exactly 100 years have passed in 2020 since the release of the play R.U.R., in which robot, the most famous Czech word in the world, was first said. The Czech Mint issued the quarter-ounce gold medal from the Stories of Our History cycle to the occasion of this anniversary.

The czech word „robota“ means serf work, when people worked on the lordship's estates. The slavish relic of the feudal system was abolished in the middle of the 19th century, but the masses nevertheless continued to long for a world without hard work. It seemed that their dream could be fulfilled by the achievements of the ubiquitous industrial revolution, but not everyone was so optimistic. One of the skeptics who warned at the beginning of the 20th century against the pitfalls of a thoughtless desire to make scientific progress was the writer, journalist and playwright Karel Čapek. The symbol of the First Republic culture and education entered history not only with its versatile literary talent, but also with timeless ideas, which are reflected in a number of works with science fiction themes. Their central motif is a revolutionary discovery that promises humanity unsuspected possibilities, but in fact leads it to perdition. For example, the anti-utopian drama R.U.R. written in 1920 takes place in the future, when people are able to create their perfect artificial replicas to free them from physical exertion forever. The world is full of slave labour, there are more artificial beings than humans, and it is only a matter of time before creations rebel against their masters… Synthetic workers are called "robots" in Karel Čapek's fictional world. However, it was not the playwright who came up with this name that spread to all world languages and which is now an integral part of ordinary speech, but his older brother - the painter Josef, with whom Karel often collaborated artistically.

Each side of the medal which was created by the medal maker MgA. Martin Dašek pays tribute to one of the Čapek brothers. The reverse side is dominated by a depiction of a robot - in fact, it is a caricature of Karel Čapek, whom Josef Čapek stylized as an artificial worker. The composition of the reverse side  is supplemented with inscription JOSEF ČAPEK - WORD ROBOT. The obverse side, which gives an industrial impression, then presents a factory and hundreds of anonymous dots that evoke the beings that the factory supplies into the world. The texts on the obverse side bear the name KAREL ČAPEK, together with the abbreviation and the name of the fictional company that created the robots: RUR - ROSSUM’S UNIVERSAL ROBOTS.

The schedule of issuance of quarter-ounce medals counts only 100 pieces. Each piece is supplemented with a special certificate of origin.