On Monday, 3 June, at the time when the 200th anniversary of Richard Wagner, the world famous German composer, is widely celebrated all over the world, the Bank of Latvia issued a collector coin dedicated to him: it also commemorates Wagner's active life period in Riga when he began work at his first important opera "Rienzi". The coin has been designed by Aigars Ozoliņš (obverse) and Ivo Grundulis (reverse), and modelled by Ligita Franckeviča. The coin was struck by Koninklijke Nederlandse Munt (the Netherlands).

Richard Wagner (1813–1883) served as main bandmaster at the Riga City Theatre from August 1837 to June 1839. Riga was the second city in the world which in 1843 saw a performance of "The Flying Dutchman" by Richard Wagner. This opera was important not only to the German culture and the Baltic German circles of Riga, it is also distinctive in the history of Latvian music and Latvia.

Namely, Wagner's youthful masterpiece was also performed in Latvian on 18 November 1918 at the solemn occasion of proclaiming Latvia's statehood, with the audience, opera choir and orchestra repeating "God, Bless Latvia!" by Baumaņu Kārlis, what was to become the Latvian national anthem, three times before the overture. The style of Wagner's musical dramas, where the swelling and even exaggeration of means of artistic expression became an aesthetic norm, was one of the elements that contributed to the triumph of eclecticism and art nouveau in Riga.

The obverse of the coin features a sailing ship in the billowing sea, with semi-circled inscription 1 LATS on the right and the year 2013 at bottom left. Reverse features Richard Wagner's portrait in profile in the centre, his facsimile signature at bottom left, and a semi-circled inscription RĪGA and the years 1837–1839 on the right.

The collector coin "Richard Wagner" is legal tender in the Republic of Latvia. The maximum mintage of the coin is limited to 5 000.

Source of information: Bank of Latvia www.bank.lv