Stumbled By Social Media Detectives, Croatian National Bank Cancels 1 Euro Coin Design Due To Plagiarism

Illustrated by the Euro. (Wikimedia Commons / Santeri Viinamäki)

JAKARTA - The Croatian National Bank has canceled a design for a proposed 1 Euro coin, after allegations emerged that its designer plagiarized an image of part of the design.

The coin was one of four designs selected to be minted, to mark the celebration of Croatia's entry into the Eurozone next year.

The back of the coin features a pine marten, a small, weasel-like mammal. Croatia's current currency, the kuna, is named after the animal found in the heraldic symbol Slavonija.

The kuna was used as currency in the region in the early 13th century. Marten ends up in money as a reference to Ancient Greek cities, which often had animals on their coins.

Prior to that, the medieval Kingdom of Hungary levied a tax on the fur marten, or marturina, in its territories south of the Drava River, making the marten a highly prized animal.

Four winners were announced on Friday, including Stjepan Pranjkovic for his marten designs. Croatian social media detectives noticed that Pranjkovic's design closely resembled a photo of the animal by Scottish photographer Iain Leach.

Leach told Euronews in an email he first heard about the incident from people in Croatia and "was amazed at how quickly people realized that my photo had been copied."

"I wouldn't know anything about that," Leach said, citing Euronews February 10.

Central Bank of Croatia. (Wikimedia Commons/Diego Delso)

The Croatian National Bank said in a statement Pranjkovic on Sunday withdrew his draft and relinquished all rights. While the statement did not specify why Pranjkovic withdrew his design, it noted, "designers participating in the tender are required to submit a written guarantee stating that their work is an original intellectual creation created specifically for the purpose of the tender."

"I wasn't asked by the designer for permission to use the photo, so I was surprised to see it as a winning design," explains Leach.

"I think designers did the right thing to draw designs after so much adverse publicity. I'm sure designers reading about this would be more careful to copy other people's photos without asking permission," he said.

The Croatian Central Bank is holding a design competition as part of the country's preparations for adopting the euro as its currency, which is expected to take place in January 2023.

"Driven by the unpleasant atmosphere in the media and social media, as well as the pressure I was under regarding the design of the back of the pine marten coin, I decided to withdraw my proposal," Pranjkovic said in a letter published by Croatia's central bank. He also said he would hand over a bounty of 70,000 kuna or about 11,000 US dollars.

Separately, the head of the Croatian Designers Association Masa Milovac said the central bank should involve more designers in the selection process.

"In this case, the Croatian central bank made the mistake of taking a decision that did not match their expertise," he said.

The plan, in the aftermath of this incident, the Central Bank of Croatia said it would launch a new tender process.