A commemorative coin of the series of oval coloured Smart coins commemorating significant milestones of world transport. 'Following the successful emissions commemorating the 100th anniversary of destruction of the Titanic liner and 130th anniversary of the first Orient Express fast train ride the Czech Mint now issues a commemorative coin reminding of the 50th anniversary of the first ride of the legendary Japanese fast train called Shinkanzen.

Japan can boast of a global primacy in being the first country in the world to complete building of a railway exclusively for fast trains. The project of separate railways for this type of transport was first developed in the 1950s. The result was a high-speed railway track connecting the two largest Japanese cities – Tokyo and Osaka. The first fast trains travelled along the track at the speed of up to 210 km/hr on 1 October 1964 and only three years later already reached the limit of 100 million transported passengers. At present the Shinkanzen network includes eight main lines and serves most of the Japanese archipelago.

The author of the oval silver coin reminding of the significant event of launch of operation of the Shinkanzen fast train route is the Jablonec artist Josef Oplištil, who is extremely successful in art competitions of the Czech National Bank. He has already designed or co-designed eleven commemorative coins for the Czech National Bank and currently works as a professional teacher and deputy headmaster of the local Professional Higher Education Institute.

The obverse side of the oval silver coin shows three types of the Shinkanzen trains (on the right - from our point of view - there is the historically first series 0 of 1964), a portrait of Queen Elizabeth and the inscription "Shinkanzen" in Japanese. The reverse side shows another four train types and the symbol of the Japanese nation - the rising Sun. Thanks to the colouring technology the motif of the rising Sun dominates the coin.

The following train types are shown on the obverse side of the coin (from left to right): Series E3, series 500, series 0.

The reverse side shows the following train types (from left to right): Series 200, series N 700, series 500, series 300, series 700.

Enrich your collection with the unique silver coin of the Milestones of World Transport series – this year commemorating the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Japanese Shinkanzen fast trains.