Baltic Joint Issue – 100 Years of Independence

The three Baltic member states are symbolically represented as a single plait, bound by their shared history — a common past, present and future. A stylised centenary numeral and the heraldic emblems of all three member states are also depicted. On the left, the name of the issuing state "LATVIJA"; on the right, the issue year "2018". The coin design was chosen by public vote across all three Baltic countries.

On 18 November 1918, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania declared their state independence within a few weeks of one another — the end of the First World War and the collapse of Russian and German rule in the region created the conditions for this for the first time. The three countries had spent centuries under changing foreign rule: under the Teutonic Order, the Swedish crown, and the tsarist empire. Despite pressure to assimilate, their ethnic, linguistic and cultural identities were preserved and formed the basis for the national movements of the 19th century. During the interwar period, all three states developed their own democratic institutions, constitutions and education systems, before the Soviet annexation of 1940 abruptly ended this phase.

The restoration of independence in 1991 deliberately drew on 1918: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania regarded their state continuity as never truly interrupted. The shared historical experience — occupation, deportations, resistance, and finally the peaceful revolution known as the Singing Revolution — has shaped Baltic solidarity to this day. Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania jointly joined NATO and the European Union in 2004; Estonia introduced the euro in 2011, Lithuania in 2015, and Latvia in 2014. To mark the 100th anniversary of the declarations of independence, all three states issued a joint 2-euro commemorative coin for the first time in 2018 — a rare step in the history of the eurozone, underscoring the close bond between these three nations.