Some of you will be pleased to know that Austria will be issuing a 20 Euros to commemorate the Austrian Railways.It will be an 18 gm. 34mm. .900 fine silver Proof medal-coin.The commemorative design will be something in relation to Emperor Ferdinand's North Railway.There will only be a total of 50,000 pieces struck. Aidan.
That is the first issue in a new "Austrian Railways" series of collector coins. High resolution image (about 800K): http://img.pte.at/photo_db/hi_res/hires27473.jpg The next piece in that series, to be issued in September, will feature the Südbahn Wien-Triest. Christian
Christian,I can guess that this is referring to the Vienna to Trieste Southern Railway for the second Austrian Railways medal-coin. Aidan.
Steve,if it was Irish instead of Austrian,then it would be of interest to me. Christian,that is still a very nice design. Aidan.
Yes quite often to get int London so I can go look at coins LOL unfortunatly they are no longer steam though.
Nice design indeed, but I do not particularly like those "theme series". Besides, unlike the €5 and €10 silver collector coins, those €20 pieces are issued in proof quality only and can therefore not be had at face value. So I won't buy the Nordbahn coin. What I did purchase, however, was this one, issued earlier this year: High resolution image (about 400K): http://img.pte.at/photo_db/hi_res/hires26387.jpg Yes, a piece from a theme series (heck, I have never said that I am consistent as far as collecting coins is concerned ) and maybe even a little too "overdetailed". But I had to have it because of that great view of the dome (on the right) and the Melk Cross. Christian
I love the detail on that one, and to be honest if I came across it going cheap I would be tempted LOL same with most coins Yep I use the tube quite a bit Aidan but from my home to London I use the train
Some more info about that railway coin: The "Kaiser-Ferdinands-Nordbahn" was opened in 1837/38, connecting Vienna (Wien-Floridsdorf station) and Deutsch-Wagram, about 10 km away. The bridge depicted on the left was the very first Austrian railway bridge. The locomotive on the other side is the "Austria", again the first one in the country. It was built in England, by the way. The three passenger cars in the upper half are interesting: below you see a first class car, above that a second class car. On top, an (open!) third class car ... well, there is no third class any more. The entire series consists of six coins - two this year, two in 2008, and two more in 2009. Christian
Christian,the obverse design of that Austrian 10 Euros looks like you are looking up inside the cupola-shaped dome of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City in Rome. Do you agree with me on this? Aidan.
Yes, they are similar in that both are richly decorated cupolas. St. Peter's dome is quite a bit older (Renaissance style), and the paintings are rather geometric, while Melk (Baroque) has a lot of figurative art, also in the cupola. In general I am not such a big fan of Baroque (bah-roque ) church architecture, but both buildings are magnificent. Christian
