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The amount of un-converted schillings has only decreased marginally compared to last year. At the end of November 2024, there was still 6.822 billion of the old currency (494.5 million euros), and at the same time this year, there was still 6.805 billion schillings hidden away in forgotten hiding places and elsewhere. From December 1, 2024, to November 30, 2025, 17.4 million schillings were exchanged for 1.26 million euros, according to an APA inquiry to the Austrian National Bank (OeNB).
Converted, the outstanding amount of schillings fell from 495.8 to 494.5 million euros within a year. The most frequently exchanged banknotes were the 20-schilling note featuring the artist Moritz M. Daffinger, with a good 25,000 pieces. This was followed by the old 100-schilling note featuring Eugen Böhm von Bawerk – economist and, fittingly, founder of Austrian capital theory – with a good 20,000 pieces.
The most frequently exchanged coins were the ten-cent coins. A total of 928,987 ten-cent coins were returned. This was followed by 788,430 one-schilling coins.
“The most common finds this year were again made in the course of apartment clearances,” the National Bank told the APA. But travelers who make it back to Austria also repeatedly bring back schilling banknotes and coins. According to the OeNB, one remarkable find was in the baseboards of an apartment that was being renovated. Hidden behind them were a few exchangeable schilling banknotes.
The schilling as a symbol of the Second Republic’s success
100 years ago, on March 1, 1925, the schilling was introduced as the official currency of the First Republic. Subsequently, and especially after its reintroduction in 1945, the schilling became the epitome of a hard and stable currency and a symbol of the successful Second Republic. It shaped Austria’s economic upswing and enabled its accession to the European Monetary Union. Since 2002, payments have been made in euros, which became book money in 1999.
Schilling banknotes from the last series can be exchanged for euros at the National Bank for an indefinite period. 13.7603 schillings are worth one euro.
- source: kurier.at/picture: pixabay.com
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