AUSTRIA quarter kreuzer 1816 A

Description

Franz (Francis) was Franz II of the Holy Roman Empire and Franz I of the Austrian Empire. He dissolved the old political entity after Napoleon created the Confederation of the Rhine from German territories taken from the old Holy Roman Empire. Franz took a leading role in opposing Napoleon, and his people dominated the Congress of Vienna that redrew the political map of Europe after Napoleon’s fall. For the most part he was absolutist and reactionary in his policies.

In the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars the old Holy Roman Empire was dissolved and reformulated as the Austro-Hungarian Empire. That political arrangement was held together by force of arms until it was smashed by World War I, when the empire was broken into several states. The Austrian national state was annexed by Nazi Germany, and was reestablished as an independent nation after World War II.

The political arrangements that resulted in the nations of modern Europe began to emerge out of anarchy starting in the 7th century AD or so. Europe, for our purposes stretches from Greenland to somewhere in Russia. Collectors of Europe would likely include Russia. Collectors of Asia, even though about 2/3 of Russia is in Asia, probably not.

By “Modern World Coins” we mean here, generally, the round, flat, shiny metal objects that people have used for money and still do. “Modern,” though, varies by location. There was some other way they were doing their economies, and then they switched over to “modern coins,” then they went toward paper money, now we’re all going toward digital, a future in which kids look at a coin and say “What’s that?” We’ll say: “We used to use those to buy things.” Kids will ask “How?” The main catalog reference is the Standard Catalog of World Coins, to which the KM numbers refer.