2026 Austria €3 UNC Coin - Mythical Creatures: The Basilisk

• Mint: Austrian Mint
• Denomination: €3
• Quality: UNC
• Issue limit: 65,000
• Alloy: Base Metal
• Diameter: 34 mm
• Weight: 16 grams
• Design: Rebecca Koini, Anna Schlindner, Nina Schwarzer
• Box/Capsule: No/No
• Certificate: No

Additional Information

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The basilisk takes centre stage on the fourth coin in the Mythical Creatures series.

Its gaze can kill and its breath is truly foul! This mythical creature is guaranteed to deliver delicious shivers and spine-tingling thrills. Yet anyone hoping to defeat a basilisk will need inventiveness.

Hatched from a hen's egg incubated by a snake or a toad, this fearsome little monster delights in spreading terror. – When ultraviolet light plays over the creature on the coin, you can almost sense its poisonous gaze and fetid breath.

The word 'basilisk' derives from the Greek basilískos, meaning a type of serpent and, literally, the diminutive of basileús ('king'). In his encyclopaedic work Naturalis Historia, the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder described the basilisk as a highly venomous snake with a white marking on its head resembling a crown. According to Pliny, its only natural enemy was the weasel, whose scent alone could overcome the creature.

During the Middle Ages, the basilisk evolved into the mythical hybrid we know today – part cockerel, part snake and, in some traditions, part toad.

A vividly coloured basilisk dominates the coin. Its head and wings resemble those of a cockerel, while its legs are those of a toad and its hindquarters end in a serpent's tail.

At the lower left are an ornament printed in gold and a mirror. A decorative band around the rim is also printed in gold.

The obverse features an intricately decorated key with the letter ‘F’ representing the first letter of the German name of the coin series. Behind it a sun is depicted in the style of a silhouette, recessed into a circular, textured relief. The stars sparkling around the edge and the irregularly shaped letters add to the coin’s enchanted feel.