Austria 5-EURO (KM3091)

This is a non-circulating issue, which I normally try to avoid at the Coin Zoo, however, in this case there has to be an exception. Because how can I not have a zoo coin in the Coin Zoo?

Animals I can easily identify on the coin include lion, giraffe, chimpanzee, owl, penguin, and a seal. What I thought was maybe a wombat (bottom centre) is actually a beaver. Now that I know it, it seems obvious because the tail is clearly visible. Over on the right, what I was calling "some sort of bear?" is indeed a bear: a polar bear to be exact.

Issued in 2002, this silver collector coin celebrates the 250th Anniversary of the Tiergarten Schönbrunn, located in Schloss Schönbrunn in Vienna. The 1,441 room baroque palace was the imperial summer residence and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

I had this coin on my wish list for many years, but never came across one, despite many years were I would attend five or six major coin shows each year. Finally, my friend Maria in Russia tracked one down and included it in a haul of coinage for me. Later, Oleg in Siberia kindly wrote me and cleared up the animal identification after he received the information directly from the Schonbrunn Zoo.