Another award-winning Klimt and his Women series gold coins has been released by The Austrian Mint, Klimt and His Women “Medicine” Gold Coin. The .986 gold coin comes in a case complete with a numbered certificate of authenticity and protective slipcase.
The Austrian Mint fourth coin
of a 5 part gold coin series celebrating one of the leading luminaries of the art nouveau movement, Gustav Klimt, and his primary subject, women. The first coin release on 25 January 2012, €50 Adele Bloch-Bauer Gold coin.
The reverse shows a detail from Medicine as Hygieia, daughter
of the Greek god of medicine, with the Aesculapian snake wound around her arm and the cup of Lethe in her hand. The letter M, the fourth letter in the word “Klimt”, appears at the foot of the coin.
A detail from Klimt’s Jurisprudence, in the form of the Eumenides, the Greek deities of vengeance, graces the coin’s obverse. Stylised snakes accentuate Klimt’s customary swirling patterns of the gorgon’s hair in the rectangular centre, while to the right stands the goddess of law.
Painted between 1900 and 1907 to decorate the ceiling of the assembly hall of the University of Vienna, Gustav Klimt’s Faculty Paintings were the Viennese master’s last public commission. Klimt’s critics believed they broke cultural taboos and pushed the boundaries of obscenity.
In 2014, Klimt and His Women "The Expectation" Gold Coin won 2015 Coin of the Year Award.
Gustav Klimt was no stranger to controversy, but the outrage caused by his Faculty Paintings was even debated in the Austrian Parliament and became a political issue. The paintings were never actually used for their intended purpose as Klimt returned his fee and refused to deliver his artworks, which were eventually burnt by the Nazis at the end of the Second World War.
Technical specifications:
Quality: Proof
Face value: 50 Euro
Date of issue: 15.04.2015
Coin design: Thomas Pesendorfer / Herbert Wähner /
Diameter: 22.00 mm
Alloy: Gold Au 986
Fine weight: 10.00 g
Total weight: 10.14 g
Release Price: € 450.00
For more information on the Klimt and His Women “Medicine” Gold Coin please visit The Austrian Mint website www.muenzeoesterreich.at.
