The Slovak National Theatre (SND) was established in 1920 and played an important role in supporting the objectives of the then recently established Czechoslovak Republic. Putting together Slovakia’s first permanent professional theatre was a demanding process, given not only the noticeable shortage of professional performing artists, but also the lack of clarity about the cultural and social objectives that the SND was supposed to meet. The performances put on by the SND in its early years were mostly in the Czech language, but with a new generation of Slovak performers coming through, an increasing number of productions were in Slovak. Today, the SND’s companies perform at the theatre’s New Building and also at its original venue: a building in central Bratislava built in 1886 to a design by the renowned Viennese architectural studio Fellner & Helmer (known originally as the City Theatre and now as the SND Historical Building). Starting out against the backdrop of the Germanic-Hungarian theatrical scene, the SND’s further evolution reflected the effects of several regime changes on the composition of its casts and audiences. in 846.

Obverse:

The coin’s obverse design depicts the SNT’s Historical Building. At the bottom centre is the Slovak coat of arms, which bisects the year of issuance ‘2020’. The name of the issuing country is inscribed along the upper edge of the design. To the left of the issuance year is the mint mark of the Kremnica Mint (Mincovňa Kremnica), consisting of the letters ‘MK’ placed between two dies. To the right of the year are the stylised letters ‘PV’ referring to the designer.

Reverse:

The reverse features the Slovak National Theatre logo enclosed within a square frame. A pair of comedy and tragedy masks appear below the logo atthe bottom of the design. Above the logo are the coin’s denomination ‘10’ and currency ‘EURO’, one above the other. The year ‘1920’ is shown with the first two digits to the left of the logo and the last two digits to the right. The inscription appearing along almost the entire edge of the design, except at the very bottom, is ‘SLOVENSKÉ NÁRODNÉ DIVADLO’ (Slovak National Theatre) and ‘100. VÝ- ROČIE ZALOŽENIA (100th anniversary of establishment), with the two parts separated by a point.