Latvian Lats: Silver Five-Lats Coins, Soviet Erasure and the 500 Lats Note

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

Newly independent Latvia introduced the lats on August 3, 1922, replacing the Latvian ruble at 50 rubles per lats and dividing it into 100 santimi. It was tied to the gold standard and from 1936 pegged to the British pound at about 25.2 lats per pound, then floated in 1939 as sterling fell. The one, two and five lats coins were struck in 83.5% silver, and the five lats coin introduced around Christmas 1929 showed a Latvian maiden at the helm of a sailboat. After the Soviet occupation in the summer of 1940, the Bank of Latvia was dissolved and the ruble was forced on shops at par, though it was worth about a third of a lats.

On March 25, 1941, at 1:05 p.m., the lats was withdrawn without warning, deposits over 1,000 lats were nationalized, and gold and currency reserves had already gone to Moscow. Latvians hid the silver five lats coin as a symbol of independence. In March 1993 a second lats replaced the transitional ruble at 200 to 1, and it became the fourth most valuable currency unit in the world and, after Malta adopted the euro in 2008, the most valuable in Europe. Its notes showed oak trees, the Daugava River and folklorist Krišjānis Barons. Latvia adopted the euro on January 1, 2014, at about 0.702804 lats per euro.

• The 500 lats note, worth over 700 euros, was the world's third most valuable banknote in circulation.
• Soviet authorities had to impose buyer limits to slow the drain of Latvian goods bought with par-valued rubles.
• The copper-nickel two lats coin of 1992 was counterfeited so often that a bi-metallic version replaced it from 1999.
• The lats was one of only 99 entries in the official Latvian culture canon.
• Old lats notes can still be exchanged for euros at the Bank of Latvia in Riga at the fixed rate.