Catastrophe?

[andyg]

Anyone know what this is?
Not sure if we have any Austrian token experts around here.....

[Prosit]

It is an Austrian Catastrophe help token made of Aluminum. It was minted by the Austrian Mint but who distributed it, I don't know.
You recieved this token for a 1-Schilling donation to the cause and in this case that cause appears to be flood relief but doubt that was the committiee's only catastrophe to help with.

Much harder to find are the larger Brass ones you recieved for donating 5 Schillings, which, no nah, has the exact same design but with a 5 in place of the 1.  That one is made of Brass.

One of the pecularities of this Aluminum issue is that on some examples, between the rower's legs next to the boat rim,
can be seen a small partial "2" (top part of the two).  I don't see that in this example.  I suspect that the 2 is a partially destroyed 2 from a stamping in the Aluminum sheet near one edge that the planchets were punched from, however I do not know that.

What else I don't know is the time frame they were used in but I have always surmised 1950's due to the design's style.


So for me what I don't know bothers me a great deal more than the satisfication I have from knowing anything about it.

Dale

[Prosit]

Here is an example of the relict “2” I spoke of.

[Prosit]

And here is the 5-Schilling version.  (27mm)

[Figleaf]

I think these very interesting medals should be dated a decade later than the 50s. At that time, the Austrian army was known as the B-Gendarmerie. There is an article on their uniforms here. With some fantasy, the cap and jackets might be of that era, but the pants are more modern.

Peter

[Prosit]

I don't know of anything that prevents them from being from the 60's.
I even did some research on flooding in Austria....but that was a long time ago...if I remember
correctly 1950's and 1960's were the big flooding decades.
Dale

I think these very interesting medals should be dated a decade later than the 50s. At that time, the Austrian army was known as the B-Gendarmerie. There is an article on their uniforms here. With some fantasy, the cap and jackets might be of that era, but the pants are more modern.

Peter