| Description : The coin, designed by Helmut Andexlinger and Herbert
Wähner, shows the head of Athena, taken from the Athena Fountain in front of the Austrian Parliament building in
Vienna. The fountain made out of Lasa marble and completed in 1902 was designed by Carl Kundmann, Joseph Tautenhayn and
Hugo Haerdtl based on the Athena Farnese statue (a Roman copy of a Greek original). Athena, the goddess of wisdom, serves
as a symbol of Austrian parliamentarism and stands for knowledge, reason and strategic abilities ‐ she is supposed to
symbolize the timeless validity of democracy. Initially an allegorical depiction of Austria was planned, but out of
consideration for the strong national feelings in the Habsburg Monarchy, the politically neutral Athena was ultimately
chosen. She wears an Attic helmet with sphinx, flanked by winged horses as helmet bush holders. The front gable of the
Parliament building, depicted on the coin was designed by Theophil von Hansen in neoclassical style, this was completed in
1883 and features a sculpture of Emperor Franz Joseph I (1830‐1916) as a Roman emperor, created by Edmund von
Hellmer in 1879. On the carriage way, historians are depicted as political admonishers, symbolically reminding the Members
of Parliament before entering the Parliament building that their activities must stand before the judgment of history and
future generations. Two of these are shown on the coin, on the right the statue of Sallust (86 to ∼35 BC),
designed by Wilhelm Seib in 1896, on the left the statue of Titus Livius (59 BC ‐ 17 AD), created by
Josef Lax in 1900 ‐ he was also the motif on an Italian 2 € commemorative coin in 2017 celbrating the
2000th anniversary of his death. On the left is the date "2018", below it "100 JAHRE" (100 Years), to the
right in a semi circle are the words "REPUBLIK ÖSTERREICH" (Republic of Austria). The coin was minted without a mint
mark by the Austrian Mint Münze Österreich AG in Vienna. |
