Baltic Joint Issue – 100 Years of Independence

The three Baltic member states are symbolised as a single braid, bound by their shared history — a common past, present, and future. A stylised centenary numeral and the heraldic emblems of all three states are also depicted. To the left: the issuing state "LIETUVA" and the mint mark; to the right: the year "2018" and the designer's mark "JP".

For Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, the year 1918 marks one of the most consequential turning points in their modern history: after centuries under Russian Tsarist rule and the upheavals of the First World War, all three countries declared their state independence within a few months of one another. Lithuania did so on 16 February 1918, when the Council of Lithuania in Vilnius signed the Act of Independence. The young republics had to assert their statehood against rival powers — the following period was marked by border wars, diplomatic struggles and the gradual building of modern state institutions. This first period of independence ended in 1940 with Soviet annexation and was only replaced by renewed declarations of independence in 1990/1991.

The shared history of the three Baltic states extends far beyond parallel political fates. Linguistically, culturally and geopolitically connected, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia developed a strong sense of their shared position between great powers over the course of the 20th century. The Baltic Way of 1989 — a human chain stretching from Tallinn to Vilnius — symbolises this shared aspiration for self-determination. Since joining the EU and NATO in 2004, all three states have been firmly anchored in the Western institutional framework. To mark the 100th anniversary of their declarations of independence, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia jointly issued their first common Baltic 2-euro commemorative coin in 2018.