Slovakia 2012 10 Euro Chatam Sofer Commerative Coin

Chasam Sofer is a great work on Jewish Ritual Laws compiled by the children of Rabbi Moses Schreiber, known as Moshe Sofer, based on the Rav Sofer's Written works on Jewish Law, formally know as "Chidushei Toras Moshe Sofer". The name of the book and the Rav has become practically synonyms. The Chasam Sofer has become a legndary figure in Jewish History.

The Chasam Sofer was born in 1766 to Rabbi Shmuel and Gittel Sofer of Frankfurt Am Mein in 1762. Like many of the great Rabbis over the centuries, his genius was the stuff of legends and became known early in his life. By the age of seven he completed Maseches Beitza, a whole section of the Talmud, and said chidushim at the siyum (a festive meal to celebrate the completion of a learning cycle of Torah). He came under the tutelage of Rabbi Nusen Adler. Until the age of 16 he learned Torah at the yeshivah of Rabbi Tavil Shayer in Magentsa. Then he returned to his parents in Frankfort in 1782. He followed Rabbi Nusen Adler from Frankfort, where he was forced out because of his leanings toward Kabbalah, to the City of Boskovitz.

Legends began to build about his life, He married the daughter of the Rabbi of Prosnitz, Sarah, on May 6th, 1787. With a building reputation, in 1797 he moved on be appointed Rabbi of Mattersdorf (currently Mattersburg, Austria) and established a Yeshiva. 18th of Adar, 5562 (1801), a huge fire broke out in Mattersdorf’s Jewish quarter, and he remained to rejuvenate the community. Eventually, in 1806 he was appointed as the Cheif Rabbi of Pressburg after 5 years of that city's deliberations over the appointment. It was hotly opposed by leaders of Jewish secularists.

Rav Moshe brought his Yeshiva with him and created the famous Pressburg Yeshiva which lasted until the Nazi occupation of 1938. Over that time, his children and grand children lead the Yeshiva until its move to Jerusalem after World War II.

His wife died childless on July 22, 1812. He remarried the widow and daughter of Rabbi Akiva Eger, Sorel (Sarah) Eiger Sofer. She bore the previously childless Chasam Sofer seven daughters and three sons: Rabbi Avrohom Shmuel Binyomin, the Ksav Sofer; Rabbi Shimon Sofer, the Rabbi of Cracow; and Rabbi Yosef Yuzpa Sofer.

In 2012, the country of Slovokia, whose modern capital is Pressburg, now known as Bratislava, continues with the long tradition of appreciation of the Pressburg Yeshiva. The Yeshiva was originally made an official college of theology under Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph I. Slovokia released two coins to commemorate the Chasam Sofer, a Mint State and Proof 10 Euro Silver coin, both 18g, 34 mm 90% silver coin minted in the Slovakian Mint. It has a mintage of 20,000 each.

2012 Slovakian 10 Euro Chatam Sofer Obverse Proof

2012 Slovakian 10 Euro Chatam Sofer Reverse Proof

2012 Slovakian 10 Euro Chatam Sofer Mint State Obverse

2012 Slovakian 10 Euro Chatam Sofer Mint State Reverse