The Croatian Central Bank's (HNB) currency commission is looking into the media allegations that the proposed design for the Croatian national side of the €1 coin, featuring a pine marten (kuna in Croatian) as a tribute to the Croatian currency kuna, looks nearly identical to a photograph of a pine marten taken by a Scottish photographer Iain Leach, the Croatian state agency Hina learned on Sunday.

Last Friday, the HNB  presented the selected best designs for the national side of the euro coins in Croatia. Upon the changeover from the kuna to the euro in 2023, the one euro coin should have the image of a marten, and the image chosen was one by author Stjepan Pranjkovic, who was awarded 70,000 kuna (nearly €10,000) for the winning design.

Since the presentation, local media have raised the question whether Pranjkovic’s proposal is identical to a photograph by Iain Leach, which may constitute copyright infringement. The scandal has gotten worse once screenshots surfaced of Pranjkovic’s Facebook communication in which he asked for assistance in processing a photo of the marten.

Leach, who took the photograph in question in 2005 in Scotland, told the Croatian media that his photographs are protected by copyright and may not be used without permission, as well as that no one had contacted him to ask for permission for the photograph to be used, nor did he receive any compensation for the use of the photo.

“I would like to be acknowledged officially as the photographer and to receive a fee for its use. I also do not think the person who stole my photograph should be rewarded nearly 10,000 euros for something copied,” Leach said.

Pranjkovic has not yet responded to any media questions about the issue.

Last Friday, HNB Governor Boris Vujcic said he was “very satisfied” with the best solutions and that the selection completed a stage in the whole process of the introduction of the euro in Croatia as legal tender.

One of the members of the commission in charge of selecting the best design, Ida Payer, commented on the scandal on Sunday, telling N1 the main problem was that the tender was open to everyone.

“This enabled a large number of people to send in their ideas without deep understanding of a project they were applying to be a part of,” Payer said. “The result is a situation in which this young author, who probably has little experience and expertise, simply submitted everything he saw online. When this is done by professionals who understand the rules, this simply cannot happen.”

She added she does not believe the author’s intention was to plagiarise someone else’s work, but that this was about a “lack of experience and knowledge.”

“He needs to apologise for his mistake. The bulk of the blame, really, lies on the entire system which allowed for this to happen,” she said.