100 Latu 1939, Latvia
| in Krause book | Number: 22 |
| Years of issue: | 13.05.1939 - 25.03.1941 |
| Edition: | 1 000 000 |
| Signatures: | Padomes priekšsēdētājs: Adolfs Klīve, Galvenais Direktors: Kārlis Vanags |
| Serie: | Latvijas Bankas |
| Specimen of: | 1939 |
| Material: | Cotton fiber |
| Size (mm): | 150 х 80 |
| Printer: | Valsts Papīru Spiestuve Un Naudas Kaltuve |
* 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:
Kārlis Augusts Vilhelms Ulmanis (September 4, 1877 - September 20, 1942) was a prominent Latvian politician in pre-World War II Latvia during the Latvian period of independence from 1918 to 1940.
On May 15, 1934, ostensibly to protect the country from a coup by right-wing extremists known as the Legion, led by Lt. Col. Voldemārs Ozols, Ulmanis as Prime Minister dissolved the Saeima (Parliament) and established executive non-parliamentary authoritarian rule. Several officers from the Army and units of the national guard (Latvian: Aizsargi) loyal to Ulmanis moved against key government offices, communications and transportation facilities. Many elected officials were illegally detained, as were any military officers that resisted the coup d'etat.
Ulmanis was a popular leader, especially among the farmers, during whose leadership Latvia recorded major economic achievements. During Ulmanis' rule, education was strongly emphasized and literacy rates in Latvia reached high levels.
He was a Latvian nationalist, who espoused the slogan "Latvia for Latvians" and held that every ethnic community in Latvia should develop its own authentic national culture, instead of assimilating. The policy of Ulmanis, even before his access to power, was openly directed toward eliminating the minority groups from economic life and of giving Latvians access to all positions in the national economy - sometimes referred to as Lettization. According to some estimates, about 90% of the banks and credit establishments in Latvia were in Latvian hands in 1939, against 20% in 1933.
As the result, the economic share of minorities - Germans, Jews, Russians, Lithuanians - declined. However, Ulmanis didn't allow any physical violence or unlawful acts towards minorities and dealt harshly with right- and left- wing extremists, and with both Nazi and Communist sympathizers. Between 1920 and 1938, many Jews, escaping Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany, found refuge in Latvia.
On July 21, 1940 Ulmanis was forced to resign and asked the Soviet government for a pension and to allow him to emigrate to Switzerland. Instead, he ended up in Stavropol in the present Russia, where he worked in his original profession for a year. In July 1941, he was imprisoned. A year later, as German armies were closing in on Stavropol, he and other inmates were evacuated to a prison in Krasnovodsk in present day Turkmenistan. On the way there, he contracted dysentery and soon died on 20 September 1942. Ulmanis had no wife or children, as he used to say that he was married to Latvia.
Avers:
Centered are the peasant family under the symbolic protection of Mother Latvia (allegoric female figure above), with a bouquet of oak branches in her hands. Near the feet of them is a sheaf of wheat.
When the banknote went into circulation, it was noted that the man, on the obverse, is very similar to Janis Balodis.
Jānis Balodis (20 February 1881 – 8 August 1965) was an army general, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Latvia (1919–1921), Minister of War (1931–1940) and politician who was one of the principal figures during the Latvian War of Independence and the dictatorship of Kārlis Ulmanis, when he officially was the number two of the regime as the Minister of War, Deputy Prime Minister and Vice President.
Jānis Balodis father was historian and teacher Voldemārs Balodis. In 1898 he joined the Imperial Russian Army and served in Kaunas. From 1900 until 1902 he studied at the Vilnius War School. From November 1904 until July 1905 he participated in the Russo–Japanese War and was seriously wounded in the arm. From 1906 until 1914 Balodis served in Vilnius. At the beginning of World War I he was lightly wounded during the battles in East Prussia, for which he received a number of decorations. On 20 February 1915, while recuperating in hospital, he was captured by the German Army and spent the rest of the war in a POW camp in Silesia.
Balodis returned to Latvia immediately after the end of World War I in November 1918, and joined the first armed units of the newly established Republic of Latvia on 18 December 1918. When Riga was threatened by the advancing Red Army, Balodis retreated from Riga together with the army and the government on 3 January 1919. On 26 February 1919 he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant colonel. After the death of Oskars Kalpaks on 6 March 1919 he was further promoted to the rank of Colonel and took control of the few Latvian soldiers in Courland. During the spring of 1919, after a string of victories over the Red Army, Balodis was given command over larger units and eventually over the Southern Group of the armed forces. In this role he was forced into an uneasy alliance with German troops. In the second half of 1919 Balodis led the 1st Courland division in battles against the Red Army in Latgale.
During the panic that followed the sudden attack of West Russian Volunteer Army (Bermontians), Balodis was appointed the Commander-in-Chief on 16 October 1919. After the victory over the Bermontians, Balodis was promoted to General on 23 January 1920.
After the conclusion of the Latvian War of Independence, the post of Commander-in-Chief was abolished in February 1921 and in July of the same year Balodis asked to be discharged from the army. By a special law of the Saeima he was presented with 100 hectares of land and a manor house. He joined the Latvian Farmers Union, the largest party at the time which was led by Kārlis Ulmanis. Balodis was elected to the Saeima in 1925, but played only a secondary role in politics. On 7 December 1931 he became Minister of War, a post he held until 5 April 1940.
Beginning in July 1933 Balodis held frequent talks with Kārlis Ulmanis about the need for the end of the multi-party system in Latvia. As Minister of War he played a crucial role in organizing the Latvian coup d'état on 15 May 1934, and together with Prime Minister Kārlis Ulmanis was one of two signatories of the proclamation by which martial law was declared and the Saeima dissolved.
During the following years of authoritarian, corporatist rule, Balodis could always be found next to Ulmanis, creating a perception of duumvirate, while in reality his role was limited to the military matters. On 12 March 1936 he became Vice President, and on 11 February 1938 Deputy Prime Minister.
After the signing of the Soviet–Latvian Mutual Assistance Treaty on 5 October 1939, Latvia became a virtual protectorate of the Soviet Union without a shot being fired. Tensions within the ruling circles increased to the point where on 5 April 1940 Balodis was relieved of all his posts without a clear official explanation.
Shortly after the Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940 Balodis was arrested on 31 July 1940 together with his wife and deported to Syzran, where they were kept under house arrest. After the start of German–Soviet war in 1941 they were deported to Kuibishev. Only in 1952, he was formally tried and sentenced to a prison sentence of 25 years to be served in a jail in Vladimir.
With the beginning of the de-Stalinization in 1956 he was released and allowed to return to Latvia. He and his wife received a small apartment in Riga and spent some time living in a summer house in Saulkrasti. In early August 1965 his health failed and he died on 8 August. General Balodis was buried in Riga. His widow managed to install a tombstone with a sword and the inscription "General Balodis" which was removed by KGB. 
Inscription, at the bottom: "Valsts kases zīmes nodrošinātas to pilnā nomināla vērtībā" or in English "Government treasury bills are accepted at their full face value".
Denominations in numerals are along all sides of banknote. Top right are in numeral and in words.
Revers:
Cargo ships staying near berth at the Riga export port, the sail ship is in harbor.
On foreground is the steamer Laimdota.
Translated from the Latvian "Laimdota" - "granted by a share" is the name of the bride of Lāčplēsis.
Information from the Latvian press of those years about the ship "Laimdota".
Information about the ship "Laimdota" in the Latvian almanac of 1930 "Latvian ports".
As can be seen from the table, the deadweight of the steamer was 6,000 tons.
Deadweight tonnage (also known as deadweight; abbreviated to DWT, D.W.T., d.w.t., or dwt) or tons deadweight (DWT) is a measure of how much weight a ship can carry. It is the sum of the weights of cargo, fuel, fresh water, ballast water, provisions, passengers, and crew.
1900 Stds - Stds = STD Slac = Shippers load and count - as it seems to me, the measure of the cargo that can fit on the ship.
Shippers load and count - All bulk and bulk ships carry a document called Mate's Receipt. This document is similar to a waybill and contains all the information related to the shipment, such as a description of the cargo, the number of bundles, weights, dimensions, etc., and this note is sent to the ship during loading ..
If any discrepancies are found between the actual delivered cargo and the mate's receipt, the chief mate (after whom this receipt is named), aka 1st mate, 1st mate, senior mate, will check the cargo and mark such discrepancies so that to confirm that the cargo was received in such condition .. This frees the vessel / owner / charterer from any claims regarding missing or damaged cargo, etc., which may be brought against them by the shipper at a later stage.
This was possible in the era of pre-containerization because the ship / agents could physically inspect and inspect the cargo.
However, in the case of containerized cargo and especially FCL cargo, the carrier / agents are not aware of the packaging of the containers and the nature of the cargo. The carrier relies on the information provided by the shipper regarding the shipment, the number of packages, weight and size .. (www.shippingandfreightresource.com)
Latvian coat of arms is on left side.
The image of the golden rising sun with 11 wide wavy rays, between which there were 10 narrow wavy rays, was also placed in the azure upper half of the shield of the State Emblem of the Republic of Latvia, approved on June 16, 1921 by the Constitutional (Constituent) Assembly of Latvia, the draft of which was created by the returnee from Petrograd by the graphic artist Rihards Germanovich Zariņš, together with Vilis Krūmiņš, (the artist himself signed "Zarrinsh" in Russian, Rihards Zariņš, 1869-1939), who until 1917 held the position of technical and artistic director of the Expedition of Preparing State Papers (EZGB ) Of the Russian Empire and the Provisional Government (according to his projects, banknotes and postage stamps of the All-Russian Provisional Government were issued in 1905-1917).
The lower half of the shield of the Latvian coat of arms was cut, in the right silver field was depicted a wormy rebellious lion from the historical coat of arms of Courland and Semigale, symbolizing Kurzeme and Zemgale, and a silver griffin from the historical coat of arms of Livonia, symbolizing Vidzeme and Latgale.
Above the shield, three golden five-pointed stars were depicted in an arc of a circle, touching each other with two rays, symbolizing the unity of the three historical parts of Latvia - Kurzeme and Zemgale, Vidzeme and Latgale. (www.heraldicum.ru .ru)
The inscription at the bottom: "Par latvijas bankas naudas Zimju viltosanu, vai viltotu zimju uzglabasanu un izplatisanu vainigos sodis saskana ar sodu likumiem".
In English: "Penalty for counterfating of Latvian money, or for the storage and distribution of counterfeit goods, is due in accordance with laws".
Denominations in numerals are in all corners. On the right side are in numeral and in words.
Comments:
Designer: Jānis Šternbergs.
The banknote went into circulation in 1939. The background of these banknotes is red, and people, at that time, said that this was not a good sign.
I became interested in the question - "Why is the State Treasury (Latvijas valsts kases zime) designated by the issuer on the 10 Lat banknotes, and the Bank of Latvia (Latvijas Bankas) is the issuer on other banknotes?"
I had to start translating the article - in the article the answer to the above question !, in Latvian, I apologize for possible translation errors.
In addition, I, unexpectedly, went to the digitized archive of Latvian periodicals, where I found an article from the Russian-language newspaper Vechernee Vremya, dated November 24, 1924, just on the topic.
Please, read here.
If you find my work useful I will be grateful for any help in supporting the site.
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