50 Krooni 1994, Estonia
| in Krause book | Number: 78a |
| Years of issue: | 10.10.1994 |
| Edition: | |
| Signatures: | President: Siim Kallas, Noukogu Liige: R. Hagelberg |
| Serie: | 1992 Issue |
| Specimen of: | 1994 |
| Material: | Cotton fiber |
| Size (mm): | 140 x 70 |
| Printer: | TDLR (Thomas de la Rue & Company), London |
* 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:
The picture of three azure leopards with red tongues in the middle, with golden oak branches placed on both sides (from Estonian coat of arms).
Avers:
The engraving on banknote is made after this photo of Rudolf Tobias.
Rudolf Tobias (29 May [O.S. 17 May] 1873 - 29 October 1918) was the first Estonian professional composer, as well as a professional organist. He studied at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. His compositions include among others piano works, string quartets and an oratorio, Des Jona Sendung (Jonah's Mission) (1908, revised and premiered 1909, later reconstructed by Vardo Rumessen).
Rudolf Tobias was born in Selja, Käina Parish, on the island of Hiiumaa. He was the son of local parish clerk Johannes Tobias and his wife Emilie. Tobias received his first musical training from his father. Under his father's tutelage, he began musical training at an early age and composing his first composition exercises from 1882 when he was 9 years old. In 1885 he entered the Haapsalu school and studied piano under Catharina von Gernet, a local pianist. After he graduated, Tobias moved with his parents to Kullamaa, where his father had become the parish clerk. In 1889 Tobias entered Tallinn Nicolai High School, where he passed the tutor's exam and studied both organ and music theory with Ernst Reinicke, the Tallinn Cathedral organist.
In 1893 Tobias furthered his studies at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, where he studied organ with Louis Homilius and composition with Nikolai Rimski-Korsakov. In 1897 Tobias graduated from conservatory with two special subjects, presenting as his graduate work the cantata "Johannes Damascenus". After graduation Tobias worked as organist and choir conductor of the Saint Petersburg Estonian St. John's Church from 1898 to 1904. During this time he also performed there his own compositions.
In 1904 Tobias moved to Tartu and worked as a music teacher in numerous schools and also worked as a tutor. During his time in Tartu he participated in organizing concerts, as well as performing as pianist, conductor and organist and preparing with his contemporary Aleksander Läte performances of oratorios. Tobias also began working as a musical journalist during this period and joined the literary group "Noor Eesti".
In January 1908 Tobias briefly moved to Paris, France. Shortly after that he lived briefly in Munich and Dresden in Germany and Prague and Dubí (in present day Czech Republic). At the end of 1908 he moved to Leipzig.
In 1910 Tobias moved to Berlin, where he worked as both an organist and journalist. In 1911 he was an active member of the evaluation committee of the German Composers Union ("Genossenschaft Deutscher Tonsetzer"). In 1914 he acquired German citizenship, and then full professorship at the Royal Academy of Music.
In August 1913 Tobias visited his homeland to view opening ceremonies of the new Estonia Theatre, where he also conducted his own compositions. After returning to Berlin, Tobias arranged his authorship concert where passages of his oratorio "Mission of Jonah" were performed. After the outbreak of World War I Tobias was enrolled in the German army where he worked as an interpreter. Tobias was released from service for medical reasons in 1916 and he returned to work in the Royal Academy of Music.
Tobias died of pneumonia on 29 October 1918. His youngest daughter, Helen, born seven months after his death, also becaome a composer. He was buried in the Wilmersdorf cemetery, in Berlin. After the restoration of the Republic of Estonia, Tobias's remains were reburied on 7 June 1992 in Kullamaa.
In commemoration of Rudolf Tobias' life and work, a monument was erected in Haapsalu in 1929 designed by architect Roman Haavamägi and a memorial erected in Kullamaa in 1973. In 1924 a street in Tallinn's Raua subdistrict was renamed after Tobias and in 1973 Tobias's name was given to the Children's Music School in Kärdla. On the occasion of the centennial of Tobias's birth in 1973, a memorial museum was opened in Selja, Käina Parish in the house where he was born.
The Tobias String Quartet (Tobiase keelpillikvartett) is named after this composer. 
Right of Tobias portrait is an organ, built by the father of the Estonian composer Rudolf Tobias for the church in Käina and destroyed in fire, in 1941. On the photo is the interior of the church in Käina and the organ, made by father of Rudolf Tobias. The picture was taken in the late 1930s.
Käina Martini Church is a church in Käina on Hiiumaa.
Originally, the building housed a XIII-century wooden church believed. The stone church, which in 1941 burned down after a bomb hits a ruin, was built around the year 1500. During the reign of Bishop Johannes III Orgase.
The church was built again, from stone, at the turn of the XV-XVI century. The Gothic church in Käina seated 600 persons and was the biggest church on Hiiumaa.
That over time, the church was a small church, the church was built in the year 1860. The extension to the south side of the altar, and was raised around the bottom of the wall. Such a north-south direction in plan solution is considered unique in the Baltics.
The church was destroyed in 1941. Several tombstones as well as the sun cross above the entrance are protected as art monuments. A fire in the church destroyed many art treasures: the altar of the Virgin Mary, Saint Nicholas and Saint Antonio, the organ built by the father of the Estonian composer Rudolf Tobias and etc.
The church also served as the parish center for many centuries. The ruins have now been conserved, the restoration of the church is planned. The trees that surround the church form a nice park, as the locals call it. (www.visitestonia.com)
Above the organ is the Eye of Providence.
The Eye of Providence (or the all-seeing eye of God) is a symbol showing an eye often surrounded by rays of light or a glory and usually enclosed by a triangle. It is sometimes interpreted as representing the eye of God watching over humankind (or divine providence).
In upper right corner is the emblem of the Bank of Estonia.
In fact, it is the same three azure leopards from coat of arms of the country.
Denominations in numerals are in lower left corner and at the top.
Revers:
Estonian National Opera is the national opera company of Estonia. The company is based at the Estonia Theater in Tallinn. The theater has had several names throughout its existence. The latest one being "The Estonian National Opera", which was adopted in 1998. The company produces a lively and varied season which includes operas, ballet's and operettas/musicals with over 500 people currently work at the Estonian National Opera.
The song and drama society "Estonia" was founded in 1870. This was the beginning of what has become the current-day Estonian National Opera (Estonian: Rahvusooper Estonia).
Play-acting was taken up in 1871, although theater as a tradition did not really come into being until 1895, when the society began to direct song plays, folk plays and comedies, usually with singing and dancing. By the start of the XX century more serious drama was being staged.
In 1906, the society became the basis for the professional theatre called "Estonia" founded by the directors and actors Paul Pinna and Theodor Altermann. This remained tied to the "Estonia" society and the Estonian Theater "Estonia" Limited Liability Company, founded in 1908, until 1940, at which time they were disbanded under the Soviet rule in Estonia as part of "the bourgeois remnant" and the theater was nationalized.
1907 - first operetta staged, Hervé's Mam'zelle Nitouche
1908 - first opera staged, Kreutzer's Das Nachtlager in Granada
1911 - the first Estonian operetta staged, Adalbert Wirkhaus's St John's Night
1922 - the first full evening ballet performance, Léo Delibes's Coppélia
1928 - the first Estonian opera, Evald Aav's Vikerlased (The Estonian Vikings)
1944 - the first Estonian ballet, Eduard Tubin's Kratt.
The opera company is also known as the Estonia Theatre after the building it occupies in downtown Tallinn. This was built as a national effort under the leadership of the "Estonia" society in 1913 and was opened to the public on 24 August that year.
The opera house itself was bombed and razed to the ground by Soviet air raids on 9 March 1944. It was reopened after the war in 1947. Estonian painters Richard Sagrits, Elmar Kits and Evald Okas painted the ceiling in tempera in the style of Socialist Realism.
Plays were staged in "Estonia" until 1949 when the drama troupe was disbanded, after which "Estonia" continued purely as a musical theater. The company celebrated its centenary in 2006. The celebration was carried out in a newly renovated opera house.
Denominations in numeral and in words are at the top.
Comments:
Many thanks to Mrs. Helgi Põllo, from the Museum of Hiiumaa island, for providing a rare photo of the organ of the church in Käina.
The paper of the banknotes contains security fibres of different colour.
Each note contains a security strip.
Each banknote has a seven-digit serial number printed in black.
Security strip.
The Sketches of the bills in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 Krooni are made by artists Urmas Ploomipuu and Vladimir Taiger. On banknotes are depicted cultural and architectural monuments in Estonia.
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