1 lat coin from national collector coin program Latvia. Times and Values.

The obverse of the coin VIDZEME shows the Vidzeme coat of arms, with a peasant in a heavy cart pulled by a two-horse team on his way to a city market below it. The particular scene is also an allegorical reminder of the hardships, which have burdened this part of Latvia for centuries. Nowhere in Latvia have the wars of the 17th and 18th centuries left such scourge as in Vidzeme where quite often entire parishes remained abandoned as a result of wars, hunger and epidemics.

The reverse of the coin depicts two serfs making timber as their corvee. Vidzeme, where the soil was less fertile than in Kurzeme and even more so in Zemgale, with the scourge of war and the plague looming over the country, woodworking was a really important occupation. Woodcraft was highly developed, and many country craftsmen had achieved amazing skills. A board with letters carved in wood remind us of the traditions of education and book art. It was in Vidzeme that the Bible was translated into Latvian and the first teachers training establishment, particularly essential for the national awakening of Latvians in the 19th century, was founded.