Austria

2016

Commemorative coin

200 years of Oesterreichische Nationalbank

Official Journal of the European Union

The design depicts two gods of Roman mythology featured in the carved relief above the entrance to the main building of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB): to the left, Mercury, the messenger of the gods and the god of merchants and commerce; to the right, Fortuna, the goddess of fate and prosperity, who is portrayed with a horn of plenty. The background picture, running from the left to the right edges of the core, shows the OeNB’s main premises. An ornamental band hugging the bottom of the coin centre evokes the red-white-red pattern of the Austrian national flag, with hatched vertical lines symbolizing the colour red, as laid down in the rules of heraldic design. The years ‘1816’ and ‘2016’ to the left of Mercury refer to the OeNB’s founding year and its bicentennial. The inscriptions running along the edges of the gold-coloured centre read ‘Republik Österreich’ (Republic of Austria) and ‘200 Jahre Oesterreichische Nationalbank’ (200 years Oesterreichische Nationalbank). The coin’s outer ring depicts the 12 stars of the European flag.

Additional information

The motif depicts two gods of Roman mythology, which can be seen on the stone relief above the entrance to the main building of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB): on the left Mercury, the messenger of the gods and god of merchants and trade with its attribute, a staff of Mercury corresponding to the staff of Hermes; on the right Fortuna, the goddess of fate and prosperity, represented by a horn of plenty. In the background of the inner part of the coin is the main building of the OeNB, designed by the architect Leopold Bauer. A band runs along the lower edge of the coin's inner part, which is intended to refer to the red-white-red pattern of the Austrian flag. According to the heraldic rules of tingierung, a vertical hatching symbolises the colour red, but not the depicted radial orientation of the hatching.

Edge lettering

Designer