The Gift of Luck
New Year Coin 2014

Not only for giving gifts, the New Year is also a time for the people of Austria to put the harshness of winter on hold and to ensure the year to come will bring them good luck. This delightful New Year 2014 silver coin celebrates some of the most typical customs that help them do so.

A favourite among children, Bleigiessen is the melting of lead into shapes whose meaning is interpreted much like the shapes made by tea leaves. The Neujahrsschnalzen banishes the winter with the crack of a whip and the sun mask wards off the cold. Other, more universal symbols of good luck, such as the four leaf clover and the horseshoe, make an appearance on the coin’s reverse, as do pigs and mushrooms, which also symbolise good fortune to the Austrians. The nine-sided coin’s obverse shows the nine coats of arms of Austria’s nine provinces.