Austrian Mint Releases Renewable Energy Silver and Niobium Coin

The Austrian Mint has released the latest issue of their 25 euro coin series, which blends the elegance of fine silver with the beauty of colored niobium. The theme of this year's coin is Renewable Energy. This will represent the eighth coin in what is undoubtedly the Austrian Mint's most success for series which has excited both dedicated collectors and part-time numismatic enthusiasts.

The obverse of the coin features the image of a tree set with the vibrant blue niobium, used to represent all the vegetation in the world. Coming out of the tree is a spiral design reflecting the continuous cycle of the world's four elements: Earth, Wind, Water and Fire. These are represented along the spiral as follows: Fire (the sun in the backgroud providing photosynthesis); Wind (the leaves blowing to the ground); Earth (giving the tree nourishment as well as recycling the fallen leaves); and Water (stylised at the bottom of the outer silver ring, allowing the tree to absord nutrients). The top of the outer silver ring includes inscriptions for the country of issue and nominal face value. The design was created by Helmut Andexlinger and inspired by the theme to "represent the living, breathing system of plants".

The reverse design features several types of renewable energy that are in use today. The Earth is depicted at the center as a stylized with each form of the renewable energy following the same pattern of four elements. Fire is represented by the sun's rays being captured by solar panels and converted into energy; water is driving the hydroelectric water turbine; geothermal heat sources of the Earth are recovered as steam (represented by the two arrows and droplets of water on the left side of the design); and wind is converted to energy by the large wind turbine in the upper left of the coin. Inscribed at the bottom of the coin are the words "Erneuerbare Energie" (translated: "Renewable Energy").

Each 25 euro silver niobium coin is struck on a 34mm flan comprised of an outer ring made from 9 grams of 90% fine silver and a core consisting of 7.15 grams of 99.8% pure niobium. The brilliant uncirculated coin is encapsulated and housed in an official Austrian Mint jewel case and outer box, accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity confirming the maximum mintage of 65,000 coins.

Peter Horsman writes for Euro Collections, which offers around 1000 different coin and collectible products from around the world. To find the coins described in this article and more visit EuroCollections.com.