Topics of coins
Nicolaus Copernicus
The year 2023 will mark the 550th anniversary of
the birth of Nicolaus Copernicus, outstanding
astronomer, creator of the heliocentric theory,
physician, economist – author of one of the
versions of the law governing the circulation
of money (bad money always drives out good
money), and faithful subject of Polish kings
– defender of Olsztyn against the Teutonic
Knights.
Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Toruń on
19 February 1473 to the family of a wealthy
merchant Nicolaus Copernicus and Barbara
née Watzenrode. His father came from Silesia
and his mother from a patrician Toruń family.
The future astronomer was fi rst educated
in Toruń, then probably in Chełmno.
In 1491–1503, he studied in Kraków, Bologna
and Padua. He completed his studies with
a doctorate in canon law in Ferrara in 1503.
In 1503 Copernicus returned to Poland and
settled in Warmia, where his uncle and patron
Łukasz Watzenrode was bishop. Before, in
1495, the astronomer had become a canon of
Warmia. From 1503 to 1510, he lived with his
uncle in Lidzbark Warmiński, and from 1510
onwards he basically stayed permanently in
Frombork, and only in 1519-1521 in Olsztyn.
Copernicus’s most important work is De
revolutionibus orbium coelestium [On the
Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres]. Copernicus
is believed to have started writing it in 1514 and
to have fi nished it around 1530. He delayed its
publication for a long time – it was published
in 1543 thanks to the eff orts of the German scholar
Joachim Rheticus. It is uncertain whether the
author saw his work before he died in May 1543.
Krzysztof Mikulski, PhD, DSc, ProfTit
The reverse of the coin features a fragment
of the monument to Nicolaus Copernicus in
Warsaw and a stylised image of sunrays.
The obverse features – in addition to the
regular elements such as the image of
the Eagle established as the state emblem
of the Republic of Poland, the face value
and the notation of the year of issue
– an image of the Solar System from Nicolaus
Copernicus’s work De revolutionibus orbium
coelestium.