2009 Austria €10 Silver Coin "Basilisk of Vienna"

• Mint: Austrian Mint
• Denomination: €10
• Quality: Proof/BU/UNC
• Limit: 40,000/30,000/130,000
• Alloy: 92.5% Sterling Silver
• Diameter: 32 mm
• Weight: 16 grams
• Artist: Th. Pesendorfer/H. Wähner
• Proof version delivered in jewel box with numbered certificate of authenticity. BU coin comes in informative blister pack. UNC coin comes in plastic baggie only.

Additional Information

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Issued on April 15, this is the first issue in a new series of six coins called “Tales & legends of Austria”.

On June 26, 1212, in the courtyard of one of the city’s most distinguished bakeries, a servant boy was dispatched into the well to investigate the source of an unpleasant odor. He resurfaced slumped over, more dead than alive. When revived, the shivering, frantic boy began to recount how he narrowly escaped a hideous monster… a beast with fiery eyes and a crest upon it’s head, and a long slithering tail. A passerby, recognizing the monster as the fabled Basilisk, proceeded to regale the onlookers with stories of a horrendous creature of unnatural birth, an aberration borne of an unholy tryst between a rooster and a toad.

The obverse shows the site of the legend, the baker’s house in the lane called “Schönlanterngasse” (Lovely Lantern Lane), with the impressive Holy Cross Court at the end of the street. The house is a protected building with the story of the legend painted on its facade. The reverse shows the terrifying basilisk just as the young apprentice holds the mirror before it. At the top of the wall the frightend baker and the counselor watch the outcome of the confrontation below.