Austrian Mint’s 2023 Global Heating Named Best Bi-Metallic Coin
The Austrian Mint won the Best Bi-Metallic Coin category at the Coin of the Year (COTY) awards for 2023-dated coins. The mint’s niobium Global Heating coin is the ninth silver-niobium 25 Euro in the series to win a COTY award.
Like its predecessors, the coin’s unique color is generated by oxidation not application. As its name suggests, the Global Heating coin recognizes that the earth is getting hotter and aims to serve as a timely reminder that we need to act before it is too late. The Austrian Mint writes:
The temperature increase caused by humans since 1850 has already exceeded the 1°C mark. Not that this is a new insight. Back in 2015, the Paris Agreement set the long-term goal of limiting the temperature increase to 1.5°C and this was reaffirmed at the UN Climate Change Conference in 2021. But the current measures for reducing greenhouse gasemissions do not go far enough for that goal to be achieved. It is now feared that a temperature increase of more than 3°C could occur by 2100, which would have catastrophic consequences for both humans and the natural world.
The Global Heating coin was designed by Helmut Andexlinger and Herbert Wähner. The coin’s obverse features a blue and gold niobium core. Inside, a thermometer forms part of a clock that symbolizes that time is running out. To its left is a globe on which it says +1.5°C. Symbols of climactic events are depicted on the outer ring.
The center of the reverse features a stylized globe. To the right are the silhouettes of two human faces, in front of them a sea turtle is seen swimming. The outer ring includes imagery reflecting the economic, ecological, and social aspects of sustainability.
The Global Heating coin weighs 16.5 grams and measures 34.00 mm in diameter. Mintage of the special, uncirculated coin is limited to 65,000.