Austrian 20 Euro Commemoratives
The 20 Euros (as well as 100 Schillings) that comprise the "Austria through the Ages" series are
pictured on this page.  (Austria thru the Ages)    




2004 SMS Novara,  20 Euro








On the reverse of the coin is a double portrait of Archduke Ferdinand Max and Commodore
Wüllerstorf.  Before them on a table is a ship's globe and navigation instruments, as well as a
microscope denoting the scientific nature of the mission.
2004 SMS Erzherzog Ferdinand Max, 20 Euro









The reverse shows Tegetthoff himself after a famous painting by Anton Romako.  He stands on the bridge, resolute but
calm, with hands in his pockets, while four crew members struggle with the wheel to bring the ship into a ramming position.

The S.M.S. Erzherzog Ferdinand Max was launched in 1865 as one of the new ironclad steam ships.  In 1866 she was
chosen by Admiral Tegetthoff to be his flagship in the Battle of Lissa, where she rammed and sank the Italian flagship, the
Re d'Italia. Two years later she became the flagship of the fleet and in 1869 accompanied the Emperor Franz Joseph on
his visit to the Holy Land and the opening of the Suez Canal.  In the following decade the S.M.S. Erzherzog Ferdinand Max
served in the second reserve, until in 1885 she was taken out of service and became an assistant ship in the Artillery
School.  Archduke Franz Ferdinand wanted to preserve her as a historic vessel, but the Ferdinand Max was finally broken
up in 1916.




2005 SMS Admiral Tegetthoff, Polar Expedition, 20 Euro










The reverse side shows the expedition leaders, Julius von Payer and Karl Weyprecht, in their Arctic clothing with the frozen
ship caught in the ice behind them.

The Austro-Hungarian polar expedition of 1872 was a very heroic one.  The leaders of this expedition, which aimed at
sailing the north-east passage around Russia to the Bering Straits and the Pacific, were the naval officer, Karl Weyprecht,
and the infantry officer, Julius von Payer, who in 1870 had taken part in the second German polar expedition.

The expedition ship was a three mast schooner with an auxiliary steam engine to make her independent of the weather.
She was constructed in the northern German port of Bremerhaven especially for the expedition, and was named the
Admiral Tegetthoff after the great Austrian seaman who had died the year before. They set sail on 13th June, 1872, but
after reaching Arctic waters the ship became hopelessly trapped in ice drifts. No efforts of the crew could free the
Tegetthoff from the frozen mass and they drifted with the ice helplessly for just over a year.

On 30th August, 1873, land was sighted to the north-west.  Jubilant with renewed hope, they named their discovery “Franz
Joseph Land” after the Emperor of Austria.  But they had to wait until the 2nd November before they could set foot on land,
because they were too distant and the ice was not safe for crossing.  Only when they were three nautical miles away, did
the drift ice freeze together with the land.

They spent the next few months exploring what turned out to be an island group covered in ice and snow.  The cold and
weather conditions were often appalling.  It was obvious that they would never get the Tegetthoff free again, so on 20th
May, 1874, they struck out on foot for the open sea to the south, dragging three lifeboats with them.  It was a slow and
physically harrowing journey, but by mid-August they had reached their goal and they put out to sea where they were
picked up by two Russian fishing vessels a few days later.  They had been out in the open for 96 days since abandoning
the Tegetthoff.

Back in Vienna they were celebrated as heroes, and were rewarded with both Austrian and foreign medals and
distinctions.  They had succeeded in writing a stirring chapter of Austrian and world history.




2005 SMS Sankt Georg 20 Euro









After the celebrations opening the great Jamestown Exposition, which included an international naval review before
President Theodore Roosevelt, the ships visited the Annapolis Naval Academy before moving up the coast to New York.
During their stay there, the captains had to cancel all shore-leave in order to stem the number of desertions, since the
Sankt Georg had 17 men jump ship and the Aspern lost 10 crew members. The call of the New World was proving too
strong! The Sankt Georg and the Aspern were the last Austrian naval vessels to visit America.

In the First World War, the Sankt Georg was confined to operations in the Adriatic Sea, as was the rest of the imperial
navy. The end of her story was regrettably less admirable. In February, 1918, her crew joined with some other disaffected
sailors in the southern Adriatic port of Cattaro (Kotor) in a short-lived mutiny.  In April she was decommissioned and
awarded to the British as war booty after the armistice. The Sankt Georg was broken up and scrapped in Genoa at the
end of 1920.
Austrian Coins,
Medals & Tokens
The obverse shows the S.M.S. Novara under full sail in
Chinese waters. The coast can be seen in the
background as well as a Chinese junk. This side also
bears the face value and the country of issue "Republik
Oesterreich", Republic of Austria.
The second coin in the silver series "Austria on the High Seas" is dedicated to
the S.M.S. Erzherzog Ferdinand Max named after the Archduke (Erzherzog)
Ferdinand Max, brother of the Emperor Franz Joseph, commander-in-chief of
the Austrian navy and from 1864 the ill-fated Emperor of Mexico.

The coin shows the Ferdinand Max under full steam heading for the island of
Lissa in the Adriatic Sea, and the battle with a superior Italian fleet. Tegetthoff's
admiral's flag flutters from the mizzenmast.
The third silver coin in the “Austrian on the High Seas” series continues to
celebrate Austrian successes on global seas, this time reaching into the far
north.

The obverse shows the ship the Admiral Tegetthoff steaming into Arctic waters
surrounded by the frozen landscape. The country of issue REPUBLIK
ÖSTERREICH, “Republic of Austria” as well as the year of issue 2005 and the
name of the expedition ship EXPEDITIONSSCHIFF ADMIRAL TEGETTHOFF
are also located on this side of the coin.
The Fourth 20 Euro silver commemorative in the “Austrian on the High Seas”
series is dedicated to the armoured cruiser S.M.S. Sankt Georg, which was
launched in 1903 in the naval dockyards in the harbour of Pola (today “Pula”
in Croatia) and was taken into active service in the imperial navy in 1905.  Its
first overseas mission (that is, outside the Mediterranean) was in 1907 when it
was dispatched together with the smaller cruiser S.M.S. Aspern to represent
Austria-Hungary at the celebrations of the 300th anniversary of the founding
of Jamestown, Virginia.