The central European nation of Austria has a proud and rich history as the seat of the once-powerful and wealthy Habsburg Empire.
As a former world power, Austria struck many gold coins in its heyday, many of which are still extant today. Also, Austria celebrates its history and heritage by regularly manufacturing more gold coins.
Austrian gold coins are popular among coin collectors and gold investors because the golds are made of 24k gold, which is purer than most other gold coins which are often 22k gold.
Traditional Austrian gold coins
There are three popular types of historical Austrian gold coins, ducats, florins, and corona. Legal tender in Austria is now the euro, but gold coins can still be obtained. .
The ducat is the most popular form of Austrian gold coin. They were first minted in the early 1600s and have been produced fairly regularly since then. In prior years, ducats were used in international trade and many countries modeled their trade coinage after the ducat. There are two main denominations of ducat, the 1 ducat and 4 ducat. The 1 ducat contains about 1/10 of a troy ounce of gold and the 4 contains a little more than 2/5 of a troy ounce of gold. The ducats typically featured the profiles of rulers of the Austrian house of Habsburg.
The florin was produced from 1870 to 1892 in Austria. There are two main denominations, the 4 florin 10 francs and the 8 florin 20 francs. The 4 florin contains a little less than 1/10 of a troy ounce of gold and the 8 florin has nearly 1/5 of a troy ounce of gold.
The corona was produced beginning in 1892. They come in denominations of 10, 20 and 100 corona. the 10 coronas contain about 1/10 of a troy ounce of gold, the 20s contain about 1/5 of a troy ounce of gold and the 100s contain 9/10 of a troy ounce of gold.
New Austrian gold coins
In 1989 Austria began striking Philharmonikers. They come in weights of 1/10, 1/4, 1/2 and one troy ounce of gold. Their design commemorates the Austrian Philharmonic Orchestra, one of the best orchestras in the world. They are valued in Euros.
New Philharmonikers are issued every year and are among the most popular bullion coins throughout the world.
In 2002, Austria began minting gold euros. The new gold euro are legal tender throughout the Eurozone, although commemorative gold euro are only legal tender in Austria. The 2002 issue of gold Austrian euros features St. Benedict on the coins.
In addition to ducats, corona, euros and Philharmonikers, Austria has minted a variety of other gold coins, including schillings and crowns.
Austrian gold coins are valuable to coin collectors and investors seeking to protect their wealth by buying gold. The historical worth attributed to some of these coins may provide added value to gold investors.
