The One Euro Cent coin (€0.01) has a value of one hundredth of a Euro and is composed of copper-covered steel. It is the lowest-value coin in the Eurozone. Like all other common circulation coins (from 1 cent to €2), the denomination is issued by the separate countries in the Eurozone and is legal tender in all of them, irrespective of which country has issued it. The coins have a common reverse (designed by Luc Luycx in 1999), and each country has its own national obverse; the Austrian obverse was designed by Josef Kaiser.
The denomination was introduced in 2002, when Austria retired the Austrian Schilling currency and introduced the Euro. The one-cent coin was not redesigned in 2007 as was the case with the higher-value coins.
Austrian Euro Cents feature an Alpine gentian flower as a symbol of Austria's part in developing EU environmental policy. Austria is the only country which uses the Latin alphabet, and yet repeats the denomination on the national side of the coins - thus not adhering to a rule which only allows members of the Eurozone to show the denomination in their own language if it uses non-Latin script.
All Austrian coins are struck by the Austrian Mint in Vienna. |