Austria's 2½ euro denomination never entered general circulation and was issued exclusively as a collector piece — the face value itself is fictitious in the sense that no standard Austrian circulation coinage used that unit. The Klimt issue appeared the year before Austria locked its schilling irrevocably to the euro, making these late-1990s collector pieces among the last numismatic productions under the old monetary regime.
Austria's 2½ euro denomination never entered general circulation and was issued exclusively as a collector piece — the face value itself is fictitious in the sense that no standard Austrian circulation coinage used that unit. The Klimt issue appeared the year before Austria locked its schilling irrevocably to the euro, making these late-1990s collector pieces among the last numismatic productions under the old monetary regime.