Colored 3 Euro Coin Austria 2023 – Luminous Marine Life “Stony Coral”

TheStony Coral, the fifth €3 coin in the Luminous Marine Life series, takes you straight to the world’s most species-rich marine habitat – the coral reef. This is because stony corals use themselves as material to create fantastical living worlds in which other sea creatures also thrive, including the clownfish with its bright orange body and three white stripes with black edges.
Reef-building corals can have a wide variety of growth forms. Most stony coral species secrete calcium carbonate at their base, and the calcareous skeleton is formed through symbiosis with single-celled microalgae. They reproduce by forming new coral calyxes on top of old ones or when coral polyps become independent. If left undisturbed, they will continue to do so as long as the seawater remains clean and there is enough sunlight.
Some species of stony corals can live for several hundred years, which may explain why, at certain points in Earth’s history, stony corals formed entire islands and archipelagos over thousands of years, such as the Bahamas, Bermuda and the Maldives. Moreover, about 600,000 years ago, corals began to build the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia. Today, the reef, with 359 species of stony coral, is the largest structure created by living things on Earth and provides habitat for many other species.
However, coral mortality worldwide is linked to rising surface water temperatures caused by global warming. Severe “coral bleaching” occurred in 1998 following the occurrence of an El Niño event in the western Pacific and Indian Oceans, when temperatures were 1–3°C above the long-term average for several months.

Series: Luminous Marine Life
Denomination: 3 euro
Weight: 16g
Diameter: 34mm
Material: CuNi
Circulation: 65.000

All 3 euro coins in this series are legal tender in Austria.