AUSTRIA silver 20 kreuzer 1786 B

Description

Joseph II was a son of Maria Theresia and Francis, and brother to Marie Antoinette among others. He had some of what might be called “liberal” or “progressive” views, but was a total absolutist as far as power and politics. The Wikipedia article seems to emphasize his personal life, with its normal ups and down, more than his political and military adventures. I get a picture of a guy who thought about things but also did what he thought he had to do, with, it seems, a preference to consult himself over other people. He reformed extensively, inculding, among other edicts he promulgated, compulsory education. He died just as the French Revolution got going.

The Holy Roman Empire developed after the breakup of the Carolingian Empire. The Central European political entity that bore that name was begun by German Emperor Otto I, in 962 AD. It became the possession, more or less, of the Habsburg family until 1806, when Napoleon dissolved it.

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.