25th Anniversary of the Fall of the Iron Curtain, Austria, 2014, 18g

Description

Showing the same momentous occasion from two different perspectives, the coin shows a young everyman escaping from oppression and totalitarianism – represented by the Berlin Wall and barbed wire – on its obverse. The coin’s reverse shows the same man at the same moment as he emerges into the ‘Free World’. Famous landmarks standing for the nations involved in the process that led to the end of the Cold War also grace the reverse: the Charles Bridge in Prague for the former Czechoslovakia; the Riesenrad Ferris wheel in Vienna for Austria; the Chain Bridge in Budapest for Hungary; Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate for Germany; and the Statue of Liberty for the USA. The end of the east-west divide, the fulfilment of the dreams of so many people and the birth of a free, peaceful and united Europe are commemorated in this masterful silver coin.