Austria. Final Silver Proof Coins in The White Gold of Hallstatt Series Features Beliefs and Rituals

Following on from last year's topic of salt mining and salt trading, the series entitled White Gold of Hallstatt reaches its conclusion in the form of Beliefs and Rituals. The last coin in the three-part series sheds light on the religious and spiritual world of the Hallstatt culture, the material culture that flourished in Central Europe during the period 800 to 500 BC. Early communities living near the Hallstatt mountains discovered it contained something that both made food tasty and preserved it. There is still no other region in the world where the purest salt has been successfully mined from the Stone Age to the present day and in the early days, Hallstatt actually supplied half of Central Europe with salt. As early as around 1200 BC, it was already known that Hallstatt could produce very sophisticated tools and technical innovations for the time. In the Bronze Age, picks made from deer antlers were used to mine salt. In addition to the ability to create a rich and thriving culture based on the mining of salt, the people of the Hallstatt culture boasted other skills. The traces of those skills were discovered by mine operator Johann Georg Ramsauer in 1846, when he came across a burial ground near the Hallstatt salt mine. The valuable burial objects he uncovered are not only evidence of the prosperity and high social status of those buried there, but also of the religious and spiritual world of the Hallstatt culture.

Displaying a high degree of technical expertise in their manufacture, the burial objects include elaborate bronze vessels containing food and drink that were intended to nourish the deceased on their journey to the afterlife. The ornate depictions of people with which they are often decorated include scenes of festivities as well as cremations. Waterfowl such as ducks and swans seem to play a special role. They were regarded as a symbol of the divine as, unlike humans at the time were able to move on land, in water and the air.

The coins are designed by Kathrin Kuntner and Rebecca Wilding, their collaborative efforts depict a bowl decorated with a bull in the foreground is featured on the coin’s obverse, one of the remarkable artefacts unearthed at the burial grounds of Hallstatt and which are symbolised in the background by a pair of skeletons. Along the upper left and top rim is the text REPUBLIK OSTERREICH with the denomination 20 EURO and year of release 2025 placed just to the lower left of the primary design. Inspired by artistic depictions found on bronze vessels from the Iron Age, known as situlae, the coin’s reverse features an image of a ritual in the foreground, in which a prostrate person is being blessed or anointed by another who is standing. In the background, beyond those supporting the ritual and a blazing fire, a water bird is depicted. Due to its great importance, salt also played a part in rituals. Valuable items such as salt or, white gold played its part in the ceremonies.

Available from the 19^th February, each proof-quality silver coin is encapsulated and presented in a heavy-gauge card case complete with a numbered certificate of authenticity and protective slipcase. For additional information, please visit the e-webshop of the Austrian Mint. 

A custom-designed collector case in the shape of a natural crystal of salt is also available as a separate purchase. The practical, simple yet sophisticated format and shape emphasises the historical importance of salt in the development of civilisation. Divisible into four parts that are held together by magnets, the case provides space for all three coins in the series and their certificates including the companion book to the series which is also available separately.