2011 Austria €10 Silver Coin "Dear Augustin"

• Mint: Austrian Mint
• Denomination: €10
• Quality: Proof/BU/UNC
• Limit: 40,000/30,000/NA
• Alloy: 92.5% Sterling Silver
• Diameter: 32 mm
• Weight: 16 grams
• Artist: Th. Pesendorfer, H. Andexlinger
• Proof version in jewel box with numbered certificate. BU coin in blister pack.

Additional Information

Please click here for an external web page in English!

Issued on October 12, this is the sixth and last issue in a series of six coins called “Tales & legends of Austria”.

Augustin was a ballad singer and bagpiper, who toured Vienna‘s inns entertaining people. The Viennese loved Augustin because of his charming humor in bitter times and they called him "Lieber Augustin" (Dear Augustin). Once he was drunk and on his way home he fell in the gutter and went to sleep. He was mistaken for a dead man by the gravediggers patrolling the city for dead bodies. They picked him up and dumped him into a pit filled with bodies of plague victims outside the city walls. Next day when Augustin woke up, he was unable to get out of the deep mass grave. He was shocked and after a while he started to play his bag pipes, because he wanted to die the same way he lived. Finally people heard him and he was rescued from this dreadful place. Luckily he remained healthy despite having slept with the infected dead bodies and Augustin became a symbol of hope for Viennese people.

Since the value of the 16 grams of silver is considerably higher than 10 Euros, the coin is only issued in BU and proof qualities.