1924 AD., Austria, 1st Republic, Vienna mint, 200 Kronen, KM 2833.

Austria, 1st Republic, engraver: Philipp Häußler, Vienna mint, 1924 AD.,
200 Kronen (ø 19 mm / 3,29 g), bronze (95% Cu 4% Sn 1% Zn), 3,30 g. theor. mint weight, mintage 57.160.000 , axes medal alignment ↑↑ (0°), plain edge,
Obv.: ÖSTERREICH / · 1 9 2 4 · , cross potent.
Rev.: 2oo , value number, engraver´s monogram below.
KM 2833 ; ANK 4 .

Year / Mintage
1924 / 57.160.000

A cross potent, also known as a crutch cross, is a form of heraldic cross with crossbars or "crutches" at the four ends. In German, it is known as a Krückenkreuz (literally "crutches cross"). Potent is an old word for a crutch, from a late Middle English alteration of Old French potence 'crutch', from Latin potentia 'power' (which in medieval Latin meant 'crutch'). The term potent is also used in heraldic terminology to describe a 'T' shaped alteration of vair, and potenté is a line of partition contorted into a series of 'T' shapes.
Upon the passage of the 1924 Schilling Act it was used as a national symbol of the Austrian First Republic, minted on the backside of coins. In 1934 it became the emblem of the Austrofascist Federal State of Austria, adopted from the ruling Fatherland's Front, an authoritarian traditionalist political organisation led by Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss.