500 Schilling Austrian Printing

Austria's 500-Schilling commemorative series, launched in 1959, was the first regular program of large silver commemoratives issued by any European mint in the postwar period. The 1982 issue honors the history of printing in Austria, a subject with particular resonance given that the Viennese printing industry had been central to the Habsburg administrative apparatus for centuries. By 1982, the silver content had already been reduced from the original .900 fine used in early issues — the .640 fineness reflects cost pressures that had been creeping into the series since the mid-1970s.