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The Austrian Mint won the “Best Gold Coin” category at 2020 Coin of the Year (COTY) Awards for its 50 Euro honoring Alfred Adler. The winning coin, dated 2018, is part of a three-coin series that celebrates the pioneering schools of psychotherapy. The other coins in the Vienna Schools of Psychotherapy series honor Sigmund Freud and Viktor Frankl. 

The Austrian Mint won the Most Artistic Coin Category at the 2019 COTY Awards for its 50 Euro honoring Sigmund Freud, which was the first coin in the series. Adler was originally a member of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic movement. However, he broke with Freud and founded the Society for Individual Psychology in 1912. Individual psychology became a viable alternative to psychoanalysis and paved the way for the development of psychotherapy, the scientific discipline established in Vienna in the 20th century. 

As described by the Austrian Mint:

Born in Vienna in 1870, Adler was the second of seven children born to Hungarian-Jewish parents. After his studies at the University of Vienna, Adler became an ophthalmologist before moving into general practice. His clinical experience led him to conclude that each patient should be viewed as a unique entity, that we are free beings who are not determined by our instincts and that we have to solve the cultural responsibilities that life imposes on us. This idea made individual psychology a therapeutic alternative to psychoanalysis, a development that was temporarily hindered by the First World War, during which Adler served as a doctor with the Austrian Army. After the war, Adler’s influence grew considerably. Form 1927 he was a regular visitor to the United States where his optimistic view of humanity achieved great popularity. In the early 1930s, Adler’s Jewish heritage led to the closure of his Austrian clinics and he left the country of his birth for a professorship at the Long Island College of Medicine. One of the world’s best known psychologists at the time, Adler died in 1937 while on a lecture tour in Scotland. 

The award-winning coin was designed by Mag. Helmut Andexlinger and Herbert Wähner. The obverse side of the 50 Euro includes a three-quarter left-facing portrait of Alfred Adler along with the vertical text REPUBLIK OSTERREICH, the name ALFRED ADLER, the year of issue 2018, and the denomination of 50 EURO. The reverse of the coin illustrates the stylized image of a family unit of three — a little community — the key concept in Adler’s individual psychology.

The 50 Euro honoring Alfred Adler is comprised of .986 gold. It measures 22.00 mm and weighs 7.89 grams. While mintage is limited to 20,000, the coins are still available for purchase on the Austrian Mint’s website.