25 Euros Extraterrestrial Life

Austria's niobium commemorative series, running since 2003, assigns a distinct color to the reactive metal's center each year through an anodization process — the specific hue is determined by the oxide layer thickness, which in turn depends on the voltage applied during treatment. The 2022 issue continues this tradition, with the niobium toned to a blue-violet range associated with the extraterrestrial theme.

The series has become one of the few government-issued bimetallic programs where collector demand reliably exhausts the mintage — capped at 65,000 pieces annually — within weeks of release.