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In the Vienna Monetary Treaty of 1857, the German states in the Zollverein made an agreement with Austria and Liechtenstein to issue "union" coins based on a shared currency standard. That same year, Austria struck its first union double thaler at the Vienna Mint. In all, 1,644 coins were produced, one of which you can see here.

It's a commemorative coin celebrating the completion of the "Südbahn", the southern railway line – that's the route from Vienna to Trieste, which was part of the Austrian Empire at the time. The railway route was of very considerable importance to the empire. Trieste was developing into a key Mediterranean port, and international maritime trade was flourishing.

The message is easy to identify if you look at the coin. In the centre is the Trieste lighthouse with flags flying from it. It's flanked by a steamship and a locomotive, symbolising the economic upswing. Below them are the coats of arms of Vienna and Trieste respectively, to identify the beginning and end of the railway route. The double thaler bears witness to the engineering advances that were so important to the country's economic development.

The obverse displays the portrait of the man who ordered the building of the line: Emperor Franz Joseph the First, wearing a laurel wreath. The coin was designed by the medallist Carl Radnitzky.