A native of the Banat village of Idvor landed in America at sixteen with, as he put it, five cents to his name — and became a Columbia University professor and the inventor whose coils transformed long-distance telephony. Mihajlo Pupin is the subject of Serbia’s 20 dinara of 2012.

The loading coils Pupin patented in 1899 made it possible to carry telephone signals over long distances, and AT&T bought the American rights. He was also among the first to use a fluorescent screen in X-ray imaging, cutting exposure from an hour to a few minutes. His autobiography «From Immigrant to Inventor» won the 1924 Pulitzer Prize, and in 1932 he received the John Fritz Medal.

The reverse shows the scientist in left half-profile with the name «МИХАЈЛО ПУПИН», the dates «1854–1935» and the value in Cyrillic and Latin; the obverse bears the greater coat of arms of the Republic of Serbia with «РЕПУБЛИКА СРБИЈА-REPUBLIKA SRBIJA» and «НБС-NBS». The coin closes the National Bank of Serbia’s run of commemorative 20 dinara that began with Nikola Tesla in 2006: no new 20-dinar coin has been issued since Pupin.

It is the sixth and final piece of the Serbian portrait 20 dinara series, and in a science-and-inventions collection Pupin pairs naturally with Tesla. About Uncirculated (AU-UNC): signs of circulation are barely visible, limited to light friction on the highest points of the portrait, and the lustre is almost fully intact.

At VPcoins you will find coins for a collection, for a gift, or simply for the pleasure of owning them.