2019 Artificial Intelligence 25 Euro Silver Niobium Bimetallic Coin, obverse. Image courtesy Austrian Mint
Description:
Artificial Intelligence, the 2019 Silver Niobium edition, looks to a future that has already begun. We humans have been using artificial intelligence, in the form of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, to think for us for quite a while now. Highly functioning and always available, computers help us go about our daily business in a reliable fashion without us even noticing. Brain-teasers that adults find incomprehensible are child’s play for computers. The creative genius that has long distinguished humans from our physical superiors, the animals, is in danger of being superseded. Yet, ironically, we remain superior to robots in terms of our ‘animalistic’ abilities, which include our perception and motor skills. Artificial intelligence will no doubt become far more intelligent and creative than we are, but we will still be able to beat it at table tennis.
For the time being, at least.
Through the combination of silver and niobium, the Austrian Mint has achieved an internationally recognized innovation of a quality that no other coin manufacturer has so far managed to equal. The niobium tones arise without the application of color, purely through light refraction on an extremely thin, transparent oxide layer. The combination of the coins’ two-tone niobium core with the circular design of the silver outer ring provides the ideal environment in which to explore fittingly fascinating themes.
The Coin
2019 Artificial Intelligence 25 Euro Silver Niobium Bimetallic Coin, reverse. Image courtesy Austrian Mint
The coin’s obverse shows the head of a humanoid robot in its electric-blue niobium core and a processor from which conductor paths extend to the silver outer ring. The coin’s reverse symbolically depicts developments related to artificial intelligence: the e-health system, smart machines, processors, digitalization, data analysis, and artificial neural networks. Neural synapses spread from the outer ring into the niobium core where they meet a binary code. In the foreground, we see the outline of a head symbolizing our ignorance about the future functioning of humanoid super intelligence.
The edge of the 2019 Artificial Intelligence 25 euro silver-niobium coin is smooth.
Legal tender in Austria, this new two-tone coin is the 17th entry in the Austrian Mint’s popular silver niobium series. It is minted to a maximum of 65,000 pieces in Special Uncirculated quality only and coin contains nine grams of 900 Fine Silver in its outer ring and 6.5 grams of 998 pure niobium. Each piece is encapsulated, boxed and comes complete with a numbered certificate guaranteeing its authenticity.
Designer(s):
Helmut Andexlinger is the Chief Engraver of the Austrian Mint. His innovative work with computer technology has resulted in many award-winning coins for the Mint and places him at the forefront of a younger generation of coin designers (View Designer’s Profile).
A quiet giant, Herbert Wähner is a designer and engraver at the Austrian Mint.
Both artists studied at the Fachschule für Metalldesign in Steyr, Austria.
Coin Specifications:
Country: | Austria |
Year Of Issue: | 2019 |
Denomination: | 25 Euro |
Mint Mark: | |
Mintage: | 65,000 |
Alloy: | Outer Ring: .900 Silver; Inner Core: Niobium |
Weight: | 16.50 grams |
Diameter: | 34.00 mm |
OBV Designer | Helmut Andexlinger | Herbert Wähner |
REV Designer | Helmut Andexlinger | Herbert Wähner |
Quality: | Special Uncirculated |
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