1000 Litų 1991, Lithuania
| in Krause book | Number: 52a |
| Years of issue: | Not issued |
| Edition: | 9500000 (19903 remaining at the Bank of Lithuania) |
| Signatures: | Valdybos Pirmininkas: Vilius Baldišis (31.07.1990 - 10.03.1992) |
| Serie: | 1993 Issue |
| Specimen of: | 1991 |
| Material: | Cotton fiber |
| Size (mm): | 135 х 65 |
| Printer: | United States Bank Note Corporation (U.S.A.) |
* All pictures marked 
are increased partially by magnifying glass, the remaining open in full size by clicking on the image.
** The word "Specimen" is present only on some of electronic pictures, in accordance with banknote images publication rules of appropriate banks.
Description
Watermark:
Lithuanian coat of arms "Vytis" and The Columns of Gediminas.
The Columns of Gediminas or Pillars of Gediminids are one of the earliest symbols of Lithuania and one of its historical coats of arms. They were used in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, initially as a rulers' personal insignia, a state symbol, and later as a part of heraldic signs of leading aristocracy. During the period between World War I and World War II they were used by the Lithuanian Republic as a minor state symbol, e. g. on Litas coins and military equipment.
The symbol appears in the following form: horizontal line at bottom, vertical lines extent up at both sides. The square at the middle of the horizontal line is about half as tall as the vertical lines. Another vertical line rises from the top center of the square, giving an overall appearance is close to a trident. This form is the one usually seen in modern times, often drawn on walls and fences as protest against the Soviet occupation of Lithuania.
It is notable that the ancient pre-Christian symbols of Lithuania did not follow the same strict rules of heraldry as their western counterparts. Thus this symbol was used in Or and argent, usually on the field gules, and was depicted in various shapes on flags, banners and shields.
The name "Columns of Gediminas" was given in the XIX century by historian Teodor Narbutt, who supposed that the symbol was Gediminas' insignia. The more exact name of the symbol is the Pillars of Gediminids, since there is no direct evidence of its connection with Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas.
Avers:
The engraving is made after this photo of Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis.
Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (Polish: Mikołaj Konstanty Czurlanis; 22 September [O.S. 10 September] 1875 – 10 April [O.S. 28 March] 1911) was a Lithuanian painter, composer and writer.
Čiurlionis contributed to symbolism and art nouveau and was representative of the fin de siècle epoch. He has been considered one of the pioneers of abstract art in Europe. During his short life he composed about 400 pieces of music and created about 300 paintings, as well as many literary works and poems. The majority of his paintings are housed in the M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum in Kaunas, Lithuania. His works have had a profound influence on modern Lithuanian culture.
Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis was born in Senoji Varėna, a town in southeastern Lithuania that at the time was in the Russian Empire. He was the oldest of nine children of his father, Konstantinas, and his mother, Adelė née Radmanaitė (Radmann), who was descended from a Lutheran family of Bavarian origin. Like many educated Lithuanians of the time, Čiurlionis's family spoke Polish, and he began learning Lithuanian only after meeting his fiancée in 1907. In 1878 his family moved to Druskininkai, 30 mi. (50 km.) away, where his father went on to be the town organist.
Čiurlionis was a musical prodigy: he could play by ear at age three and could sight-read music freely by age seven. Three years out of primary school, he went to study at the musical school of Polish Prince Michał Ogiński in Plungė, where he learned to play several instruments, in particular the flute, from 1889 to 1893. Supported by Prince Ogiński's 'scholarship' Čiurlionis studied piano and composition at Warsaw Conservatory from 1894 to 1899. For his graduation, in 1899, he wrote a cantata for mixed chorus and symphonic orchestra titled De Profundis, with the guidance of the composer Zygmunt Noskowski. Later he attended composition lectures at the Leipzig Conservatory from 1901 to 1902.
He returned to Warsaw in 1902 and studied drawing at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts from 1904 to 1906 and became a friend with a Polish composer and painter Eugeniusz Morawski-Dąbrowa. After the 1905 Russian Revolution, which resulted in the loosening of cultural restrictions on the Empire's minorities, he began to identify himself as a Lithuanian.
M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum in Kaunas, Lithuania.
He was one of the initiators of, and a participant in, the First Exhibition of Lithuanian Art in 1907 at Vileišis Palace, Vilnius. Soon after this event the Lithuanian Union of Arts was founded, and Čiurlionis was one of its 19 founding members.
In 1907 he became acquainted with Sofija Kymantaitė (1886–1958), an art critic. Through this association Čiurlionis learned to speak better Lithuanian. Early in 1909 he married Sofija. At the end of that year he traveled to St. Petersburg, where he exhibited some of his paintings. On Christmas Eve Čiurlionis fell into a profound depression and at the beginning of 1910 was hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital "Czerwony Dwór" (Red Manor) in Marki, Poland, northeast of Warsaw. While a patient there he died of pneumonia in 1911 at 35 years of age. He was buried at the Rasos Cemetery in Vilnius. He never saw his daughter Danutė (1910–1995).
Čiurlionis felt that he was a synesthete; that is, he perceived colors and music simultaneously. Many of his paintings bear the names of musical pieces: sonatas, fugues, and preludes.
In 1911 the first posthumous exhibition of Čiurlionis's art was held in Vilnius and Kaunas. During the same year an exhibition of his art was held in Moscow, and in 1912 his works were exhibited in St. Petersburg. In 1957 the Lithuanian community in Chicago opened the Čiurlionis Art Gallery, hosting collections of his works. In 1963 the Čiurlionis Memorial Museum was opened in Druskininkai, in the house where Čiurlionis and his family lived. This museum holds biographical documents as well as photographs and reproductions of the artist's works. The National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art in Vilnius was named after him in 1965.
Čiurlionis inspired the Lithuanian composer Osvaldas Balakauskas' work Sonata of the Mountains (1975), and every four years junior musical performers from Lithuania and neighbouring countries take part in the Čiurlionis Competition. Čiurlionis's name has been given to cliffs in Franz Josef Land, a peak in the Pamir Mountains, and to asteroid #2420, discovered by the Crimean astrophysicist Nikolaj Cernych. 
The coat of arms of Lithuania, consisting of an armour-clad knight on horseback holding an olden sword and shield, is also known as Vytis (pronounced [ʋiːt̪ɪs], "the Chaser"). The Lithuanian coat of arms is one of the oldest national coats of arms in Europe. It is one of very few containing symbolism adopted from ducal portrait seals rather than from coats of arms of dynasties, which is the case for most European countries.
Article 15 of the Constitution of Lithuania, approved by national referendum in 1992, stipulates, "The Coat of Arms of the State shall be a white Vytis on a red field". Heraldic shield features the field Gules (red) with an armoured knight on a horse salient Argent (white). The knight is holding in his dexter hand a sword Argent above his head. A shield Azure hangs on the sinister shoulder of the knight with a double cross Or (yellow) on it. The horse saddle, straps, and belts are Azure. The hilt of the sword and the fastening of the sheath, the stirrups, the curb bits of the bridle, the horseshoes, as well as the decoration of the harness, are Or (gold).
The blazon is the following:
Gules, a knight armed cap-à-pie mounted on a horse salient argent, brandishing a sword proper and maintaining a shield azure charged with a cross of Lorraine Or.
Denominations in numerals are in three corners. In words lower, centered.
Revers:
The painting by Čiurlionis - Fairy Tale (Fairy Tale of Kings) (Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, Karaliu pasaka). Tempera on canvas, 1909. Size: 70,2 cm. × 75,3 cm.
Denominations in numerals are in all corners. In words lower, centered.
Comments:
The banknote was not issued due to insufficient means of protection against counterfeits.
A set of Lithuanian banknotes in my collection.
On November 29, 2017, the Bank of Lithuania issued gift sets of Lithuanian banknotes, which were not issued due to insufficient means of protection against counterfeits.. In total, 5000 sets were released.
Designer: Raimondas Miknevičius.
The idea of a national currency system was first discussed on May 26, 1988 at the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences at a meeting of Lithuanian and Estonian scientists. At this meeting, Stasys Uosis, a professor at the University of Vilnius, publicly announced that an independent monetary system is no less necessary than a national writing system. Gradually, the development of legal acts regulating the functioning of an independent monetary system began.
At the same time, the first steps were taken in the creation of artistic design for the litas. As one of the authors of Lithuanian banknotes Giedrius Jonaitis stated, "at first I could not even believe that this [design of banknotes] was a serious matter." On September 11, 1989, a group of scientists, economists and artists gathered in Vilnius at the Institute of History and discussed the principles of developing the Lithuanian currency. Soon after, plans to develop Lithuanian banknotes were presented to a wide audience of artists. But few of them offered their services, although the declared idea of the national currency was approved. As Raimondas Miknevičius, the unofficial leader of a small group of artists, said, "it was perfectly natural, because many understood that they did not have the faintest idea of how the money was created and where it was necessary to begin."
Indeed, at the beginning of the process of creating banknotes, artists were faced with great uncertainty: young designers had no way of knowing how the currencies of other countries were worked out and printed, what the production process was. The currency emission of the USSR was classified and controlled by the State Security Committee (KGB); to show interest in this topic was dangerous. Much discussion arose as to how the future Lithuanian banknotes will look, what should be depicted on them, and also what the denomination structure should be.
The unofficial work plan was issued in writing on December 14, 1989 after D. Trinkunas, Minister of Culture of the Lithuanian SSR, and Z. Zhilyavičius, Chairman of the Lithuanian Republic Bank of the State Bank of the USSR, announced a two-stage tender for creating a currency design (litas and cents). The jury's meeting was held on February 12, 1990. Unfortunately, the presented works were received with great skepticism. It was obvious that the artists saw the Lithuanian currency as a continuation of the Litas of the interwar period both from the economic point of view and in the artistic aspect. In the representation of artists in Litas images of the rulers of the GDL, portraits of historical figures, architectural monuments, ornaments of folk art should be depicted. Most of the portraits of the rulers of the GDL were published in the chronicles of the XVI century. Alessandra Gvagnini, while some of them (portraits of Vitaut the Great, Kestutis) are the imagination of artists of the XIX-XX centuries. In this regard, it was decided not to award the first place. The second place went to Alvidas Mandeika, the youngest participant of the competition (for the image on the banknotes of the portraits of the DKL rulers), and to Ludwikas Pocius (for depicting the main events, personalities and objects from the history of Lithuania).
After this competition, the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR was instructed to develop in a short time recommendations for perpetuating the outstanding personalities of Lithuania, as well as historical and architectural monuments on paper currency units - banknotes. It was decided in a symbolic way to select the figures of the first rebirth as heroes for the image on the national currency (it was argued that the desire for independence was the second revival). The Lithuanian national revival is a social, cultural and political movement that took place at the end of the 19th century. - the beginning of the XX century, the purpose of which was to form a modern nation and political emancipation, as well as the creation of an independent national state.
The task consisted not only in the artistic depiction of the selected individuals, the designs had to meet certain technological requirements in order to avoid falsification of the banknote. The Lithuanian emigrant Kestutis Linikas (an expert on the production of currency from Australia) was very useful person from this point of view. He was invited to consult with the designers of banknotes. K.Linikas gave the first lessons in the issue of currency, security functions. He insisted that the portraits be drawn as large as possible and not located in the center of the banknote (when folding the bill in half, its security functions are erased faster), but on its sides. He also suggested keeping the light tones in the drawings (which makes it more difficult for counterfeiters to do their work), to abandon unnecessary ornaments. It was K. Linikas who drew the attention of banknote designers to the fact that no woman was included in the list of persons selected for the image.
He said that the issue of banknotes with portraits of only men would cause outrage of the world feminist movement and, therefore, a portrait of at least one well-known Lithuanian woman was needed. It was then that it was decided to portray the writer Zhemayte on a denomination of 1 litas. (Asta Ravaityte-Kuchinskene, Chief Specialist of the Bank of Lithuania Money Museum).
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