Austria’s Munze Osterreich took home top honors in the Best Bi-Metallic Coin category in the Coin of the Year (COTY) Awards for coins dated 2024. The winning 25 Euro, Edaphon Living Soil coin (KM#3379), celebrates the diverse living organisms in soil and is part of Austria’s annual niobium and silver coin series.
The word “Edaphon” refers to the animal and plant life present in soils.
The obverse of the Edaphon coin, designed by Helmut Andexlinger, shows the five factors that contribute to the development of soil: time, mineral material, climate, soil organisms (in the niobium core), and the relief of the landscape (in the outer silver ring).
The reverse was designed by Herbert Wahner. It features a mole at the top, an earthworm on the left, a snail at the bottom, and an ant on the right.
The coin weighs 16.5 grams and measures 34 millimeters in diameter. Mintage is limited to 65,000.