103649 | AUSTRIA. Sigmund Freud bronze Medal.

103649  |  AUSTRIA. Sigmund Freud bronze Medal. Issued 1906 for the 50th birthday of the founder of psychoanalysis (59mm, 99.75 g, 12h). By Carl Maria Schwerdtner, Jr. at the Vienna mint.

 

SIEGMVND FREVD WIEN MCMVI, bust right // The Riddle of the Sphinx: nude Oedipus standing left, resting head in hand and holding walking stick; to left, forepart of Sphinx right; to right, ‘OΣ TA KLEINP’ / AINII MAT ‘HIΔEI / KAI KPATIΣTOΣ ‘HN ANHP (what goes on four feet in the morning, two feet at noon, and three feet in the evening?). Edge: Plain.

 

Wurzbach 2797; Storer 1127; Optica et Visio in Nummis IV.261 var. (silver). Choice Mint State. Olive-brown surfaces, with some pleasing brilliance in the fields. Compare to a similar example that realized a total of $450 (after the buyer's fee) in Classical Numismatic Group E-535, lot 748.

 

The father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud was born in Freiberg in 1856, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. During his extensive and exceptionally influential career, he developed therapeutic techniques, discovered the idea of transference, and established his well-known model of the id, ego, and super-ego. Likely equally well-known is his redefinition of sexuality, including the infantile form, which led to his concept of the Oedipus complex. Appropriately, that served as the inspiration for the reverse of this medal.

 

Upload: 1 September 2026.