Silver Coin
Virunum

In the days when the Romans ruled most of the known world their settlements also controlled modern-day Austria. Virunum, the impressive first in our six-coin Rome on the Danube series, celebrates the capital of the Roman province of Noricum, which covered two thirds of the country.

The centre of cultural life in Noricum and home to the only great Roman amphitheatre to have been discovered on Austrian territory, Virunum was founded by the Emperor Claudius. His profile features on the coin’s splendid obverse over a background in which a Roman chariot is drawn by a pair of horses. The scene is taken from a Roman tombstone found in Virunum, which can be seen today on the wall of a church in the neighbouring village of Maria-Saal. It is a scene reflected on the coin’s obverse, where a horse-drawn Roman wagon passes in front of a temple as a blacksmith fashions prized Noric iron into swords for the Roman legions stationed in Virunum.

Superbly struck in Proof quality with a maximum mintage of 50,000 pieces, each coin comes in a protective transparent acrylic capsule and a presentation box containing a numbered certificate of authenticity. For those keen to complete the whole six-coin collection an impressive wooden case is also available for purchase.