The National Bank of Poland issued a set of two coins, dedicated to paintings by Jan Matejko.
The coins commemorating the Prussian Homage and the Russian Homage are to recall important events in the history of Poland. Matejko used the motif of Polish victories over the countries that partitioned Poland in later years from his first works.
Matejko planned two paintings whose common motif was to depict a foreign ruler on his knees, as a gesture of homage to the Polish king. In 1882, "Prussian Homage" was completed, depicting the fief oath of the Prussian prince Albrecht Hohenzollern to Sigismund the Old in Cracow in 1525. Ten years later, he planned to create another great historical painting depicting the homage paid to Sigismund III by the Moscow Tsar Vasyl Shuiski and his two brothers, which took place in Warsaw in 1611.
The coins are packed in an elegant box with a certificate of authenticity.
