The coin craze, seen by a passer-by

The Czech National Bank issued coins to mark the anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia. Their face value is 20 CZK — these aren't commemorative coins. You can use them as regular currency, or exchange them at any ČNB branch. In total there were 600,000 pieces — 200,000 of each type.

The mania — there's really no other word for it — played out every morning at pretty much every bank branch. People were sitting there waiting for it to open, then standing and waiting... and waiting. Rain or shine. They were always there. Until the coins ran out at the end of October.

Some people even tried selling them on aukro for over 100× face value. I don't quite get who'd buy that — these won't gain value. There are so many of them in circulation that it was basically throwing money away.