There has long been a tradition in parts of Europe, and particularly Austria, of celebrating the New Year numismatically.  Way back in the 1540s, pieces were issued with ecclesiastical overtones, which depicted Christ carrying a lamb; in modern times, with increasing light-heartedness, this has evolved into a chimney-sweep carrying a pig.  Not that small medallions have been the only medium used for conveying the sentiment; Hamburg first counterstruck stamps and then franked envelopes with "Prosit Neujahr" for a few years in the late 1880s and early 1890s, after which the advent of the picture postcard provided the means for conveying a thousand and one flippancies under the same banner for another four decades.  Then, sometime around 1933, the official Govrnment mint in Vienna started to issue tokens bearing, like the postcards before them, the familiar phrase, "Prosit Neujahr".

The sentiment conveyed is a well-wishing for not only a happy, but a rather boisterous and festive, perhaps somewhat alcoholic, New Year.  Certain symbols repeat themselves, not all used on every piece by any means, but quite frequently; the lucky cat, the horseshoe, the four leaf-clover and the aforementioned pig.  The sweep, when not carrying said pig, may be seen striding out with cheerfully with a ladder.

After an experiment or two based on the groschen of the period {repeated in Germany with the pfennig}, Vienna issued a series of 23mm copper pieces up to 1938; these with only one main design, the reverse being either a repeat of the obverse, a date, blank, or an advertisement.  Right from these early days they were used as commercial promotion pieces, which is now probably their main use.

Worsening conditions occasioned the use of zinc in 1939, and after the war in 1946/7; not surprisingly there were no Prosit Neujahrs during WW2, although the issues of Dec 1946 give thanks on their reverse for the first year of peace.  From 1948 a choice of metal finishes were available; aluminium for a few years only, bronze and, predominantly for quite a while, brass.  By the 1960s plated pieces were being produced as well, to create the impression of a bright silver or gold finish.  It is certainly possible to find some years' pieces in several different forms.

Few of the pieces bear their engravers' initials, although a few do, but the styles of a number of them can be traced over the course of several years.  From 1939 onwards, the pieces come in both dated and undated form, presumably the latter being favoured by some customers because of their greater flexibility of use.  From 1960 the diameter dropped from 23mm to 21½mm, which it remains on the main Vienna mint issues to this day.

As from about 1955, rival companies started to enter into the Prosit Neujahr business; the most prominent and long-lasting being Schwertner, who promoted the use of "Prosit Neujahrs" as commercial freebies and enticed many organisations to purchase consignments with the company name on the reverse.  Chief amongst these in the early days were several of Vienna's major hotels, however, from the mid-1990s, the range of advertising became much wider; in consequence of which, the later pieces can be found paired with a profusion of private reverses.  One of the hotels, Hotel Sacher, appears to have been using these pieces consistently for over half a century, although probably changing its supplier from the official Vienna mint to Schwertner at some stage.

Schwertner also issued a generic set of pieces from the off, which for their first forty years or so consisted of a pair of types, "pig climbing stairs" and "sweep carrying ladder", which continued with only minor changes until 1999.  From 1996 they revert to 23mm, whilst the official mint stayed at 21½mm; they also experimented with some further designs, and from 2000 there have been four each year.  Three of these are swapped out intermittently; one Silvester the sweep, has so far remained constant.  Silvester?  The name given in some countries to 31 December, named after the saint whose patronal festival is celebrated on it.

There have also been a number of lesser makers of Prosit Neujahrs, mainly of short duration.  Some of them used metal such as zinc which tarnished too easily to remain attractive; in comparison to Schwertner's products, which have been consistently plated to present a shiny, brassy appearance.

There is a fine site on Prosit Neujahrs, www.austriancoins.com/TokensMain.html, run by Texan enthusiast Dale Hallmark, who is keen on all things numismatically Austrian.  He has put up an excellent illustrated display, and I recommend.

Compiled by David Powell - 2008.

Images have been enlarged about 50% to aid readability.