Slovakia, I Republic. An Opening of the Legislative Assembly of the Slovakia Commemorative Table Medal 1939

In bronze, marked "- MINCOVNA KREMNICA -" (Kremnica Mint) on the edge, obverse illustrating the left-facing bust of Andrej Hlinka (September 27, 1864 - August 16, 1938: Slovak Catholic priest, journalist, banker, politician and one of the most important Slovakian public activists in Czechoslovakia before the Second World War), surrounded by the inscription "ZA BOHA - ZIVOT - ZA NAROD - SLOBODU" (For God - Life - For the Nation - Freedom) and engraver marked "S J BRUNKO", reverse illustrating the Slovak Cross above three pillars wrapped in two x-shaped bands, backed by branches of linden leaves and a flowing ribbon banner, surrounded by the inscription "OTVORENIE ZAKONODARNEHO SNEMU SLOVENSKEJ KRAJINY 8 JAN 1939" (Opening of the Legislative Assembly of the Slovak Country / January 8, 1939), measuring 65 mm in diameter, edge nicks, bruised, contact marks, fine.

Footnote: During the first Slovak Republic, client state of Nazi Germany (1939-1945), Andrej Hlinka was considered by the regime as a national hero. Josef Tiso, his deputy and successor in Hlinka's Slovak People's Party, became the president of the fascist first Slovak Republic. The Hlinka Guard, militia maintained by the Hlinka's Slovak People's Party created shortly before Hlinka's death, later participated in the Holocaust in Slovakia. In Communist Czechoslovakia Hlinka was portrayed as a "clerofascist". After the fall of Communism, Hlinka became again a respected person, mostly to nationalist sympathizers and to Christian democratic organizations, while the rest of current Slovak society seems mostly indifferent towards Hlinka's memory. Hlinka's image could be found on the Slovak 1000-crown banknote, before Slovakia's adoption of the Euro in 2009. A motion in the Parliament of Slovakia to proclaim him "father of the nation" nearly passed in September 2007.