| Description : Suvalkija is one of Lithuania's ethnographic regions in the
south‐west of the country, part of the historical Sudovia landscape. The old Prussian tribe of the Sudovians/Jatwingers
resisted the knights of the Teutonic Order for the longest time. It was not until 1283 that the Sudau prince Skomand
adopted the Christian faith and gave up resistance. In the Peace of Lake Melno in 1422, the Order had to relinquish most of
Sudau, which since then belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and thus, from 1596, to the Polish‐Lithuanian Noble
Republic. With the Third Polish Partition, this larger part of Sudau came to Russia in 1795. From 1815 onwards, the area
was the north‐eastern corner of Congress Poland, which was bound to Russia in personal union and deprived of any
independence after the Polish Uprising of 1830. In 1918, northern Sudovia became part of the newly constituted Lithuanian
state, initially under German occupation. From 1939 to 1944, the south‐eastern part of Sudauen was annexed directly by
the Greater German Reich as the 'Suwalkizipfel'. Today, the southern part of Sudau with the town of Suwalki (Lithuanian:
Suvalkai) belongs to Poland, the northern part with the cultural centre of Marijampolė to Lithuania. Suvalkija has
never been an independent political entity. Divided between the administrative district of Mariampolė and part of the
administrative district of Alytus from 1994 to 2010, it still has no official status in the structure of Lithuania.
Suvalkija is a strongly agricultural region due to comparatively good soils. The Lithuanian dialect Westaukshtaitic spoken
in this area forms the basis for the modern Lithuanian language. The coin designed by Rolandas Rimkūnas shows
the coat of arms of Suvalkiya with an aurochs (once the dominant animal species of this region) in the shield. This is
flanked on either side by acorn‐bearing oak branches instead of shield holders, joined at the bottom by a ribbon
bearing the motto "VIENYBĖ TEŽYDI" (May unity prosper). At the top is the issuing country "LIETUVA" (Lithuania)
and below it the year of issue "2022", below at the bottum it the occasion of issue "SUVALKIJA". Above it is the circular
mint mark "LMK" of the Lithuanian mint Lietuvos monetų kalykla in Vilnius. |
