 Source of image: www.nbrb.by
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| THE LEGEND OF THE STORK
The stork features highly in the Belarusian popular thinking on birds, Along with the swallow, pigeon, lark, and nightingale it is considered to be a special, "divine", and "sacred" bird. The stork's image is perceived as a symbol of Belarus and its land,
In popular beliefs, this bird is an absolutely sentient being that is also endowed with high moral qualities. The legend of its origins provides an excellent explanation of where such an attitude towards the stork is rooted.
The legendary folk tale of its origins is one of the most popular mythological subjects among the Belarusian people that has been preserved by traditional rural culture to date.
According to the tale, the stork used to be a man, Once God told him to throw a sack (bag, pot, box, and so forth) containing all kinds of harmful insects, rodents, and snakes into the sea (abyss, pit, and so forth), and forbade him to untie it to see what was inside. However, the man succumbed to temptation and, either out of curiosity or tempted by another man, disobeyed, All the creatures spread over the globe in a flash, while the man was turned, for his curiosity and disobedience, into the stork wandering around the world and collecting all these beings for food.
The reverse of the coin reflects the symbolic and vivid contents of the Belarusian folk tale about the origins of the stork. Its image on the coin acquires cosmic (mythic) connotation; the area around it, enclosed within a circle, represents the earth and the universe; whilst the frog and the snake are perceived as the moon and the constellations in the starry sky.
The depiction of a wheel, the symbol of perpetual motion and continuity of the link between the present and the past and the future, forms the basis for artistic and vivid presentation of the obverse. A wheel with spokes is also associated with the rotation of a spinning wheel. This representation is closely connected with arts and crafts and the process of spinning. With the spinning wheel revolving at a uniform rate, grannies and mummies used to tell, in the evenings, their children and grandchildren legends, fairy tales, and stories about the past, In this context, the wheel portrayed on the obverse becomes the symbol of succession and the handing down of traditions from one generation to another. M. Boganeva
V. A. Labacheuskaya
Employees of Belarusian State Institute for Culture Issues
Text from the official flyer “The Legend of the Stork” of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus
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| Date : 20.11.2007 |
| Metal : Cu/Ni |
| Diameter, mm : 32.00 |
| Weight, g : 15.50 |
| Mintage, St. : 5000 |
Minted by :
CJSC "Lithuanian Mint", Vilnius, Lithuania |
Design :
O.Novoselova | | | 
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Ebay-Statistic
(Prices in Euro):
| Year |
Count |
Ave
rage |
Min. |
Max. |
| 2006 |
0 |
0,00 |
0,00 |
0,00 |
| 2007 |
4 |
11,35 |
11,13 |
12,00 |
| 2008 |
24 |
12,03 |
1,00 |
16,96 |
| 2009 |
19 |
11,10 |
8,38 |
15,88 |
| 2010 |
9 |
9,59 |
8,30 |
12,00 |
| 2011 |
0 |
0,00 |
0,00 |
0,00 |
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