1.5 of them to be precise...

A few days ago I ordered a pre-graded MS69 Austrian 2008 Vienna Philharmonic coin. It's a 1 oz 0.999 fine silver round just like the Silver Eagles. This is the first year that they've made them. It's really nice to be getting in on the ground floor with one of these series. The coin was given a face value of 1.5 Euros. That's indicated on the label as $1.5E so I guess NGC can't make that funny little E either.

I ordered it for the signature set I'm working on that's dedicated to these various government issued bullion coins. With the additon of this one the set now has coins from 4 countries (the United States, Australia, China, and Austria) but I'm hoping to have that increase with time (by adding Canada, Mexico, the UK and any others that are available). I think it's great to be able to see the different approaches that each of the countries approach the same basic concept. I think it says a lot about what each country values and their culture. Ideally I'd have nice pictures of every coin in the set but the semester is interfering with that... ah well, something to look forward to in December!