20 Euro Silver Wolfgang: The Wunderkind Coin P
Wolfgang is the first coin in the Austrian Mint’s three-coin series dedicated to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, each of which explores a different phase in the short but prolific life of Austria’s most famous son. Celebrating Mozart the wunderkind, or child prodigy, this is a very special coin for a very special boy, whose genius lives on more than two centuries after his death. Born on 27 January 1756 in Salzburg, the son of a musician, teacher and minor composer, Mozart showed such musical talent from an early age that his father Leopold gave up composing to focus on his son’s musical development. The coin’s obverse features a wonderfully enigmatic portrait of Wolfgang from that period, painted in 1763. Although from a bourgeois background, Mozart is dressed in aristocratic clothes that were a gift from Empress Maria Theresa. The word ‘Wolfgang’ lies beneath the portrait so that, when placed alongside the other two coins in the series, the three coins together spell the composer’s full name. The coin’s reverse shows a scene from Bastien und Bastienne, a one-act comic opera written by the twelve-year-old Mozart in 1768.