The Austrian Mint Story

The Austrian Mint is in the lovely city of Vienna, Austria, home of great music and the seed of much psycho-analysis in the 1920s, such as Wilhelm Reich, The city is responsible for minting the National Austrian Coins. Since 1989 the Austrian Mint, producing one of the worlds’ most popular bullion gold coins, has been a public limited company and a subsidiary of the National Bank of Austria.

The design originates within the Austrian Mint, and the Austrian Mint stamps all Silver Philharmonic coins. In 2002, the Mint ceased stamping “Schilling” into the coin, the European Economic Community became the euro-zone that the State warned of in 1984 by George Orwell appeared onto the world scene for the very first time in world history.

The Austrian Mint is responsible for not only the design, but also the stamping of all coins it produces. Until 2002 it was only responsible for minting the coins of the Austrian Schilling, but after it has been responsible for the producing the Austrian euro coins. The mint also supplies circulation coins and blanks to many countries across the world.

An interesting historical antidote, Duke Leopold VI of Austria was paid 15 tonnes of silver by Richard the Lionheart. On his way back from the Crusades Richard was captured and imprisoned by the Duke in retaliation for a prior insult and paid the bounty to secure his release from prison. Leopold decided then to thus trike silver coins. Thus, minting in Vienna began. Vienna’s Mint, to be sure, was not mentioned in historical document for two hundred more years.