Long history comes to end with discontinuation of heller coin

So, the heller is no more. Last Monday, five years after the disappearance of 10- and 20-heller pieces, the 50-heller coin ceased to be legal tender. I have to say it was rather hard to take hellers seriously, given that they were worth almost nothing, were as light as a feather, and made of aluminium.

If you dropped one you’d think twice about bothering to pick it up. And you certainly wouldn’t be pleased if a shop assistant or waiter unloaded lots of them in your change. Nevertheless, the heller had a long history in this part of the world and it was almost a pity to see it go.

Historians tell us the coin originated in the 13th century in the Bavarian town of Hall. The silver, one-sided haléř first appeared in the Czech lands in the middle of the following century, and even in those days was used as small change.

But apparently it could also buy freedom in the event of a rather unlikely sounding situation: a law in the reign of Charles IV stated that anybody who killed a criminal in the process of harming a vineyard could redeem himself by leaving two hellers on the dead body.

There are also records of silver hellers under Habsburg ruler Ferdinand I, though the coin began its slide towards the indignity of appearing in aluminium when it was minted in copper under Empress Marie Theresa in the 18th century.

Getting back to the present, there have been press reports that the Czech National Bank estimates there are over 400 million now unspendable 50-heller coins in circulation. That’s an average of 40 per person, which really seems like a lot. They were always a bit of a pain, but not so hard to spend, surely?

In any case, Czech National Bank officials say they expect to get a maximum of one fifth of them back. That 80 tonnes or so of aluminium will then be sold on for use in some other industry.

By the way, the coin itself may have gone the way of the dodo, but the denomination continues to exist in the abstract. Some small items in shops are still priced in hellers. For instance, I bought a Tatranka chocolate bar yesterday priced at 9 crowns 80 hellers and paid 10 crowns. The simple system is that fifty hellers and up is rounded upwards to the next crown at the checkout.