7,89 g, Alpine Treasures - Wild Waters, 2022

Founded in 2002, Gesäuse is the most recent of Austria’s six national parks to be established. As well as its varied animal life, Gesäuse is also home to 30 endemic plant varieties – a record for Austria. Most notable is the pink, whose wonderful blooms are native to Gesäuse, thanks to the national park’s unique combination of well-watered scree, calcareous grass and dolomite rock.

The plant features on the coin’s obverse, its Latin name, Dianthus plumarius blandus, inscribed on the lower right-hand side. The reverse depicts the gateway to the Gesäuse: an immense natural panorama framed by forest with the River Enns flowing beneath the imposing 2,335 metres of the Großer Ödstein. In the foreground, an alpine salamander crawls across the coin.