Austria 100 Euro Gold Coin 2012 Imperial Crown of Austria, Series: Crowns of the House of Habsburg
Originally the personal crown of Emperor Rudolph II, the Imperial Crown of Austria can now be yours. The last 100 euro gold coin in our majestic five-coin Crowns of the House of Habsburg series, it is every bit as impressive as the spectacular crown itself.
Housed today with the other Austrian Crown Jewels in Vienna’s Schatzkammer, or Imperial Treasury, the crown was made for Rudolph II in Prague in 1602 by one of the leading goldsmiths of the age, Jan Vermeyen of Antwerp. Consisting of three parts, the circlet, high arch and mitre, the crown is depicted in all its glory on the coin’s obverse between the 100 euro denomination and year of issue. The coin’s reverse shows a likeness of the crown and Emperor Franz Joseph I (1830-1916) – during whose reign the Habsburg Empire drew to a close – from a painting by Julius Viktor Berger, which hangs in Vienna’s Supreme Court of Justice.
quality: proof
collection: Crowns of the Habsburgs
face value: 100 Euro
date of issue: 14.11.2012
coin design: Thomas Pesendorfer / Mag. Helmut Andexlinger
diameter: 30.00 mm
alloy: Gold Au 986
fine weight: 16.00 g
total weight: 16.23 g
The Imperial Crown of Austria (German: Österreichische Kaiserkrone) is the crown worn by Holy Roman Emperors from the House of Habsburg from the sixteenth century to 1806, when it became the crown of the Austrian Empire upon the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. The crown was originally the personal crown of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, and is also known as the Crown of Emperor Rudolf II.
Since the Imperial Regalia of the Holy Roman Empire, including the Imperial Crown, were kept in Nuremberg and could only leave the city for a coronation, some rulers had their own personal crowns made. For example, when they attended a session of the Imperial Diet (Reichstag), they attended with their own crowns. The oldest depiction of such a private crown is an etching by the artist Albrecht Dürer of Emperor Maximilian I, where a depiction of a crown is seen that might have later influenced the appearance of the crown of Rudolf II.
The Imperial Crown of the Habsburg Empire of Austria was never used for a coronation, since, unlike the Holy Roman Empire, it was a hereditary monarchy and such an act of legitimization was not seen as necessary. The ceremony held was an act of investiture to mark the monarch's official ascension to the throne rather than a coronation.
The crown of Rudolf II was made in 1602 in Prague by Jan Vermeyen, one of the most outstanding goldsmiths of his time, who was called specially from Antwerp. The crown is made out of three parts: the circlet (Kronreif), the high arch (Kronbügel), and a mitre (Mitra).
In the earlier forms of the Western mitre the peaks or ‘horns’ were over the ears, rather than over the face and back of the head. The form of mitre used in the imperial mitral crown preserved this earlier form. This form of the imperial mitre-crown can be seen in the extant portraits of such emperors as Frederick III and Maximilian I The bronze effigy of Maximilian I found on his monumental cenotaph in the court church in Innsbruck has a crown with two arches which cross over the top of the mitre and the unique form of the imperial crown adopted by Maximilian as Emperor of Mexico appears to have been modeled on this form, but with the half-arches and the eagles on the circlet on the front, back and sides of the imperial crown of Napoleon III. In the later 17th century Baroque form of mitral crown of Leopold I the peaks of the mitre have been rounded into the hemispherical form Peter the Great would adopt as the Imperial Crown of Russia when he took the title emperor as Russian sovereign.
Although it is often assumed that the Imperial Crown made for Otto I with its single arch over its inner red cap was the original prototype for the western imperial crown, it is also possible that the Byzantine imperial crown, which in the twelfth century also became closed with two arches, inspired the western emperors to follow their example and also close their crowns with such a pair of arches.