50 Schilling Salzburg University

Austria's commemorative 50-Schilling silver program ran through much of the 1970s, pairing a reliable .900 fine alloy with subjects drawn from Habsburg history and Austrian institutional anniversaries. This piece marks the 350th anniversary of the University of Salzburg, founded by Prince-Archbishop Paris Lodron in 1622 — a deliberate act of Counter-Reformation consolidation in a region the Church had fought hard to hold. The university was suppressed by Emperor Joseph II in 1810 and only fully reestablished in 1962, meaning the institution being commemorated had actually spent more of its history closed than open.