A short trip to the imperial vaccination center or inoculation house on Rennweg
Epidemics have accompanied humanity since the beginning of time, and their victims include not only ordinary citizens but also crowned heads.
Smallpox, like the plague, was once among the most feared epidemics, and it didn't even spare the imperial family of Maria Theresa. While the monarch herself was able to defy the disease with its terrible rash and recover, she lost three children and two daughters-in-law to smallpox. One of her daughters was so disfigured that she was no longer considered for the Habsburgs' elaborate marriage policies.
Out of gratitude that the Empress had escaped death, several medals and tokens were created. The piece presented here is likely one of the tokens thrown into the crowd during the imperial family's journey to St. Stephen's Cathedral on July 22, 1767.
After her own painful experiences with smallpox, Maria Theresa sought ways to control the disease. At the time, a type of vaccination using the variola virus – the so-called variolation or inoculation – seemed to her the most suitable method. This involved taking a smallpox pustule from a pustule of someone who appeared to have only a mild case and scratching it into the skin of a healthy person. However, this method was not entirely reliable, as it repeatedly led to devastating outbreaks of smallpox and further epidemics instead of the hoped-for immunization. Nevertheless, the Austrian Archduchess had this inoculation tested on orphans so that she could then vaccinate her own children. She subsequently opened the so-called Inoculation House on Rennweg in Vienna, where citizens could be vaccinated free of charge. Today's vaccination centers would certainly have been to her liking.
Later, it was discovered that having contracted cowpox – which is harmless to humans – also provided lasting protection against future infection with smallpox. From this understanding, a new and safer method of immunization was developed: instead of smallpox secretions, vaccinia viruses derived from cows were administered. The terms "vaccination" and "vaccine," still used today, originate from this practice. Mass vaccinations using this method were carried out in Austria as early as 1800.
We know from history books how the fight against the highly contagious smallpox ultimately ended: in 1980 the disease was finally declared defeated. This token thus reinforces the hope that we can eventually conquer Corona as well and will not have to fear further waves of infection.
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Commemorative and token coins minted during the glorious reign of Empress Queen Maria Theresa. Vienna 1782
