Chomutov, North Bohemia, Aug 7 (CTK) – Czech modeler Marek Satka is constructing a model of the German Bismarck battleship from ten-, 20- and 50 heller coins, on which he has used about 60,000 of them, Satka has told journalists.
Satka said he had to discontinue the work because he still lacked tens of thousands of the coins.
Satka started this effort almost 15 years ago. At first, he built a model of the Karlstejn castle, of the White House in Washington and the RMS Titanic.
He then decided to build the Bismarck battleship.
“I decided to dismantle all the models and reunite them into a single one,” Satka said.
“However, I did not realise that I will be short of the coins,” Satka said.
He still needs about 40,000 coins to complete the model.
It is quite difficult to gain new ones.
“I used to collect them when they were valid in pubs and restaurants and my friends brought them to me,” Satka said.
The model already weighs 35 kilogrammes. After it is finished, it is to be 2.5 metres long, 32 centimetres wide and 65 centimetres tall.
“I still have to build the gun turrets and to finish the bow, stern and the central part,” Satka said.
Satka said if he managed to gain the coins, he would need some two to four months to finish the model.
The validity of the hellers (1 Czech crown = 100 hellers) as coins ended in mid-1993. However, they are still used fictitiously for accounting purposes.
