Still 6.8 billion shillings not exchanged

Still are almost 7 billion shillings in circulation. The value has only fallen marginally compared to 2023.

While 6.8 billion schillings worth a good 497 million euros had not been exchanged at the end of November of the previous year, at the same time in 2024 there are still 495.8 million euros – and thus still rounded to 6.8 billion schillings , who “hide”. A total of 18.4 million schillings were exchanged for 1.3 million euros this year, the National Bank said in response to an APA request.

Of the billion-shilling sum, three billion are attributable to banknotes and 3.8 billion schillings to coins, according to information from the National Bank (OeNB). Most of the “Blues” (Schilling 1,000s), “Mozarts” (5,000s) and the like are found in items of clothing that have not been worn for a long time, in books between the pages and often in many hiding places in the attic or in the basement on the train of house clearances.

1.5 million shillings changed into euros every month

Around 1.5 million schillings are still exchanged at the OeNB every month. In total, from January to November 2024 there were over 57,000 shilling banknotes and 2.8 million shilling coins. This brought the total to 18.4 million schillings or 1.3 million euros.

When it comes to banknotes, the largest number of banknotes exchanged were 23,413 20-shilling notes with the portrait of Moritz M. Daffinger, followed by 20,983 exchanged pieces of the 100-shilling note with the portrait of Eugen Böhm von Bawerk. But it can also be done on a small scale: this year alone, 850,000 1-shilling pieces were exchanged.

The euro was introduced as book money on January 1, 1999. In 2002 it became a “real”, i.e. tangible, means of payment and replaced the schilling in Austria, the lire in Italy, the franc in France, the guilder in the Netherlands, the D-mark in Germany and other national currencies. 1 euro is worth 13.7603 shillings forever.

One shilling = 100 groschen

For the very young: A shilling is divided into 100 groschen. The smallest coin used until recently was the “Zehnerl” – ten groschen. Such a “ten” has the equivalent of 0.007 euros (i.e. 0.7 cents).

Shilling nostalgics and money fans can also look forward to the second half of 2025, as the OeNB also announced: The central bank’s money museum in Vienna will then be dedicated to the schilling, also known as the Alpine dollar, and its introduction 100 years ago. The “hard currency”, which was pegged solely to the D-Mark from the mid-1970s, was the currency of the Alpine republic from 1925 to 1938 and from 1945 until it was replaced by the euro.

The shilling had replaced the currency of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, the crown. The crown was devalued after the First World War and its currency area collapsed.