Founded in 1365 by Rudolph IV, Duke of Austria, Vienna University is the third oldest in Europe, after Prague University and Jagiellonian University in Krakow. The university is sometimes known as "Alma Mater Rudolphina." By the mid-1400s it was the largest university in the Holy Roman Empire, with 6,000 students. A century later, Ottoman forces besieged Vienna and the university suffered a devasting decline. The Jesuit Order then took over, rebuilt enrollment, and held control until the Protestant and secular reforms of the 1800s. When the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938, the university was purged of hundreds of teachers and students. In April 1945, 22-year old Kurt Schubert, a professor of Judaic Studies, was permitted by the Russian occupiers to restart regular classes.

The coin features the crowned head of Duke Rudolph IV on the reverse, and a circle of shields on the obverse. Brilliant, shiny, uncirculated, appearing to be Proof.