The third in Austria’s “Great Composers” series, this gold coin honors Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) with his portrait (along with his father, Leopold Mozart) on its obverse. Mozart was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. He showed incredible talent during his early childhood and was already composing and performing for European royalty at the age of five.
The reverse depicts a view down Getreidegasse (Grain Lane) in Salzburg. And the house (No. 9) in which Mozart was born and lived until the age of 17.
He passed away on December 5, 1791 at the age of only 35. Despite his early death, Mozart lived a productive artistic life, writing more than 600 works of almost every genre of his time, and many of these compositions are acknowledged as the pinnacles of classical music.
This coin, while graded “Mint State” by PCGS, is described as “Proof” by the issuing Mint, and could more accurately be described as Reverse Proof. The devices are reflective, while the fields are frosted. This leads to dramatic highlights and shadows on the obverse portrait and intricate reverse.
Earlier coins in this series honor Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven. Each of the three coins are just about 1/3oz gold, so that the series together totals roughly 1oz of gold.
