To honor the 810th anniversary of the city’s founding, the Bank of Latvia has released a commemorative silver coin honoring the capital of Rīga. Also issued is a coin marking the Latvian midsummer celebration, Jāņi.

The proof quality Rīga coin was designed by Gunārs Krollis with plastic molding by Jānis Strupulis. It has a nominal value of 1 lat and features the city’s coat of arms on the obverse and a panorama of Rīga on the reverse.

The 15,000 coins were minted by Rahapaja Oy of Finland. The coin is meant for collectors and will not go into general circulation, according to the Bank of Latvia.

The Rīga coin completes the eight-piece Hanseatic League series. Each coin in the series commemorates one of the Hanseatic League cities in Latvia. Previously released were coins for Ventspils, Straupe, Limbaži, Koknese, Kuldīga, Valmiera and Cēsis. Rīga joined the Hanseatic League, a mercantile organization of many cities around the Baltic Sea, in 1282.

Additionally, just in time for Jāņi, the bank has released a 1-lat coin with an image of a beer stein. The coin was designed by Juris Dimiters (graphical design) and Andris Vārpa (plastic molding).

The beer stein lat was minted by Koninklijke Nederlandse Munt of the Netherlands. A total of 1 million coins will be put into circulation, according to the Bank of Latvia.

The coins are available for purchase at branches of the Bank of Latvia.

In a similar vein to the Viegli project, in which contemporary singers interpreted the poetry of Imants Ziedonis, the Strāvoklis project features a mix of bands offering their take on the works of Jānis Rainis, perhaps Latvia’s best known poet.

Released in May, the recording contains 19 songs performed by a wide variety of independent Latvian groups. The project was initiated by producer and electronic music performer Andris Indāns and realized with the help of Edgars Šubovskis (of the popular indie Latvian group Hospitāļu iela) and Dita Ābola (who has also worked with Hospitāļu iela).

Ensembles performing on the album include not just indie stalwarts like Hospitāļu iela, Inokentijs Mārpls and HMP?, but also songwriter Imants Daksis and folk groups Iļģi and Auļi.

The project was celebrated with an event at the Rainis Monument in Rīga on May 4 to coincide with the anniversary of the renewal of Latvian independence.

Besides being released on compact disc, the album can also be downloaded for a donation at stravoklis.bandcamp.com.

The album includes:

1. Hospitāļu iela, “Laukā”
2. Bērnības Milicija, “Akmens”
3. Židrūns, “Fabrikas meitenes dziesma”
4. Jēkabs Nīmanis, “Svilpojošs vējš”
5. STandART, “Bez miega zirgi”
6. Ēnu kaleidoskops, “Kāvi”
7. Rosewater, “Svētvakars”
8. Inokentijs Mārpls, “Mūžīgā saskaņā”
9. Imants Daksis, “Mērens vējiņš”
10. isms, “Vaida”
11. Iļģi, “Dārgumu trauks”
12. Gaujarts, “Drebošā sirds”
13. Latvijas Gāze, “Grāmatā ar melnām lapām”
14. Soundarcade, “Sena aukles dziesma”
15. hmp?, “vientuļa miegaina”
16. Auļi, “Ko sējējs bēdā”
17. Jana Hermann, “Saules grieži”
18. $KODEK & TVMASKAVA, “Tā nevar palikt, tā nepaliks”
19. Nepilngadīgā Anna, “Svilpojošs vējš”

For more on the Strāvoklis project, visit www.stravoklis.lv.

The Rīga daily newspaper Diena now offers an iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch application that lets readers around the world view full copies of the newspaper, says Inese Dābola, the publisher’s marketing and public relations director.

While the application is available for free through Apple Inc.’s iTunes Store or App Store, downloading the paper will cost readers. (Diena offers three free downloads so users can explore the application.)

The application allows readers to view Diena, the weekend magazine SestDiena, and the Izklaide entertainment supplement. Cost of a single copy of Diena is EUR 0.79, while a monthly subscription that includes all three publications is EUR 8.99.

The newspaper is the first in Latvia to provide an iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch version, Dābola noted in a May 24 press release.

The application does not provide current headlines or breaking news. For that, readers will need to refer the Diena’s website, www.diena.lv, or follow the newspaper’s Twitter timeline, twitter.com/DienaLv.

Like many other news applications, the Diena software allows readers to share stories by email, Twitter and Facebook. It also allows readers to print text-only or graphical versions of stories.

One criticism: Clicking on a headline opens a text version of a story, but the text is justified (squared off against both left and right margins). That leads to unneeded white space between words, which results in lower readability, especially on the iPhone and the iPod Touch.

The Diena application requires use of an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch running iOS 3.2 or higher.