Austria

2005

Commemorative coin

50th anniversary of the Austrian State Treaty

Official Journal of the European Union

The outer ring bears the twelve stars of the European Union. The inner part shows a reproduction of the signatures and seals from the last page of the Austrian State Treaty, signed in May 1955 by the Foreign Ministers and the Ambassadors of the Soviet Union, Great Britain, USA and France, and the then Austrian Foreign Minister Leopold Figl, with the inscription ‘50 JAHRE STAATSVERTRAG’ above the seals, running along the upper edge of the inner part in a quasi-semicircle slightly tilted to the right. At the bottom left is the year of issue, 2005. The vertically-striped background of the inner part depicts the heraldic representation of the Austrian national colours (red-white-red).

Additional information

The subject of the Austrian State Treaty signed in Vienna on 15 May 1955 is the restoration of the sovereign and democratic Republic of Austria after the National Socialist rule in Austria (1938-1945) and the subsequent period of occupation (1945-1955). The coin features the seals and signatures of the Foreign Ministers of the victorious Allied Powers (Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov for the Soviet Union, John Foster Dulles for the United States, Harold Macmillan for the United Kingdom and Antoine Pinay for France) and of the High Commissioners of the four occupation zones (Ivan Ilyich Ilyichev, Llewellyn E. Thompson, Geoffrey Wallinger, Roger Lalouette) and the Austrian Foreign Minister, Leopold Figl. In the background you can see the red-white-red flag of Austria, vertically hatched according to the heraldic rules of ting, symbolising the colour red. However, the coin bears no designation of the issuing state.

Edge lettering

Designer