Mother Slovakia

What a shame Amazon banned me from their site, now they will never be able to sell obscure products like the one I´m reviewing here, some kind of Slovak commemorative coins... 

Matica Slovenska is a Slovak patriotic and cultural association, founded in 1863. It has played an important role in Slovak history at various junctures, for instance during the Prague spring, and again during the 1990's, when it supported Slovak independence. Matica Slovenska was so well known and respected in its day, that the Czechoslovak Communist regime hijacked it (rather than prohibiting it outright), while severely restricting its field of activities. I'm not familiar with Matica's present activities, but I noticed that the Wikipedia entry on MS was written by an opponent. A Slovak who opposes the Slovak Mother? The times they are a'changing…

These are commemorative coins, issued in 2013 for the 150th anniversary of Matica's founding. I'm not entirely sure who is portrayed on the coins, but a fair guess would be (from left to right) Stefan Moyses, Karol Kuzmány and Ludovít Stúr. Moyses and Kuzmány were founding members of Matica Slovenska. Stúr, by contrast, was never a member of the association, having passed away several years earlier, but is considered the original founder of Slovak nationalism. Weirdly, Stúr was born in the same house as the much later leader of the Prague spring, Alexander Dubcek!

Not sure who would want to buy this obscure product (not Hungarian-Americans, I'm sure), but naturally I couldn't resist posting a review...