Coins and Medals

The painter Ignaz Spöttl, who died in 1892, bequeathed a gift of coins to the Museum that formed the basis of the Coin Collection. The focus of his collection was on stamped coins of the Danubian Monarchy from the reign of Emperor Maximilian I (1493-1519) up to the period around 1890. As part of the preparations for the exhibition “Vom Pfennig zum Euro. Geld aus Wien” (“From the Pfennig to the Euro. Money from Vienna”, 2002), the existing money collection was systematically extended. Besides coins ranging from the Viennese Pfennig from the Middle Ages via Gulden and Kreuzer, Kronen und Heller, Schilling and Groschen up to the Euro and the Cent, there are now also numerous examples of paper money from the 2nd half of the 18th century to the present day.

Designing medals is one of the working areas of sculptors, and the art of the medallist is represented in the Wien Museum collections by about 9,000 medals, plaquettes and reliefs. These extensive holdings include highly valuable and rare pieces, especially from the period from the 18th century onwards, when Viennese medals enjoyed a growing reputation as outstanding works of art.