Austrian Electric Train Silver Coin

The 5th coin in the series “Austrian Railways” is dedicated to the electric train. What began as an attraction in 1880 in the Vienna Prater rapidly became the revolutionary step in transport since the harnessing of steam almost a century before.

Austrian Electric Train coin specifiations:

Type:

Silver, 900/1000 Ag

Finish:

Proof

Diameter:

34 mm

Fine Weight:

18 g

Mintage:

50,000

Face Value:

20 euro

Designer:

Th. Pesendorfer/H. Waehner

The 1st Austrian electric train was a small locomotive circling in the exhibition pavilion in the Prater on the occasion of the Emperor Franz Joseph’s 50th birthday. The same monarch issued a licence in 1882 (2 years later) for the 1st public electric railway.

It used DC power supply and was a 5 kilometer long stretch carrying day-trippers from the country town of Moedling into the Bruehl valley. Other short branch lines soon followed. The introduction of AC proved the most reliable for longer railway lines, and in 1911 engines using AC were put into service on the 90 km stretch to the pilgrimage centre of Mariazell.

These electric engines using alternating current were to set the trend for future development and in 1913 an agreement between Germany, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland and Norway stipulated the use of AC of 15,000 volts. But other railways authorities did not follow suit and today Europe still has no unified electric rail transport.

The World War I interrupted progress and brought to an end the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The new Austrian Republic found the problem of coal supplies for steam engines insurmountable and turned to an imperial study on electrification of the railways.

In the 1920’s the alpine lines of the Arlberg railway and the Salzkammergut railway were converted. New engines were developed. One such was the model 1100 which, because of its appearance and green colour, was dubbed the “Crocodile”.

Electrification went on until 1940 when the World War II again brought it to a standstill. Bombing inflicted extensive damage to Austria’s railway lines, but the survival of hydroelectric power stations enabled a rapid resumption of electric trains. The conversion of the major lines was completed in the 1950’s. By 1988 only half of Austrian lines were electric, but those carried 92% of the freight and passenger transportation. The epoch of steam-driven locomotives was at an end.

The obverse of the new 20 Euro proof silver coin shows an electric engine model 1189 (”Crocodile”) emerging from the Arlberg tunnel. The design on the reverse of the coin is the spectacular Trisanna Bridge on the Arlberg line with Wiesburg Castle and the mountains towering behind. A passenger train pulled by the electric engine model 1100, was dubbed the “Crocodile”, is crossing the bridge, which at its opening in 1884 ranked as the then longest (231 meter long) arched steel railway bridge in the world.

The new commemorative coin is struck in 900 fine silver in proof quality. Each coin in an attractive box and with a numbered certificate of authenticity.