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Gold Philharmonic 20th anniversary coin
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Philharmonic obverse
Another over-sized gold coin has joined entries from Canada and Britain in the collectibles market.
To celebrate 20 years of the Gold Philharmonic coin, the Austrian Mint recently issued a 20-ounce version of the coin. Though a bit smaller than its cousins (See "Harrods" and "Million dollar coin" at http://www.examiner.com/x-25015-Richmond-Coin-Collecting-Examiner ), it still is an impressive collectible work of art.
The Gold Philharmonic was introduced in 1989 when the market was dominated by bullion from Australia, Canada, and the United States. The coin’s designers chose to draw from Vienna’s musical heritage. Rather than feature the city’s legendary composers such as Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn, the coin was designed around the world famous Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. The obverse (front) shows the great organ from the concert hall, while the reverse features several musical instruments.
With their beauty and 24-karat .9999 purity, the Philharmonics were the best selling coins in the world in 1992, 1995, 1996 and 2000.
The 20-ounce 2009 Philharmonic coin is a limited one-time edition of only 6,027 coins to be minted for distribution worldwide. The coins have a diameter of 74 mm (about 3 inches) and a thickness of 8.3 mm (about one-third of an inch). They are housed in a wooden and red velvet case.
Due to limited mintage, these 20-ounce coins are expected to be collector’s items. Issued October 16, 2009, they are already available. A quick internet check located them at Apmex (www.apmex.com) and California Numismatics (http://golddealer.com/bullionpage.html), each sporting a price tag just north of $23,000. Check with other dealers for availability.
The Austrian Mint is one of the world’s oldest mints, tracing its origins back more than 800 years to 1194. It originated out of the ransom paid for King Richard the Lionhearted of England who’d been imprisoned in Vienna on his way home from the Crusades. (See more at http://austrian-mint.at/gruendung?l=en)
His ransom came to 100,000 Cologne marks, which equates to about $2 billion Euros today, according to the Austrian Mint. In US dollars, that would come to about $3 billion needed to spring His Majesty from the pokey.
All this treasure had to be pounded into useable coin of the realm, and thus began what is today the Austrian Mint which is still producing world-class coins.
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