102701 | AUSTRIA. Holy Roman Empire. Royal Marriage silver Medal.

102701  |  AUSTRIA. Holy Roman Empire. Marriage of Joseph II to Maria Josepha silver Medal. Issued 1765 (39mm, 26.16 g, 12h). By A. Widemann.

 

IOSEPH • II • R • REX S • A • M IOSEPHA BAV • CAROLI VII • FILIA, draped busts right of Joseph, laureate and armored, and Josepha // AVSPICIA FELICITATIS PVBL•, Austria, holding baton, and winged Genius, holding torch and wreath, standing around altar bearing coats-of-arms of Austria and Bavaria; in two lines in exergue, VOTA SECVNDA MDCCLXV / XXIII IAN. Edge: Plain.

 

Montenuovo 1938; Wittelsbach 2249. PCGS SP-63. Mostly gunmetal gray toning, with intense iridescence around the devices and a great lustrous brilliance in the fields. No doubt one of the most attractive examples of the type extant, and the sole representative in the PCGS census.

 

The son of Holy Roman Emperor Franz I and Maria Theresia, Joseph II succeeded his father upon the latter's death in 1765, though most of his rule would be dominated by his mother and her demand for keeping sovereign control over her hereditary possessions. Joseph's first marriage was to Isabella of Parma in 1760, though she would die just three years later after contracting smallpox during her second pregnancy. In 1765, he then was betrothed to his second cousin, Maria Josepha, the daughter of former Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII and Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria. Sadly, this marriage was arranged purely for political reasons and the couple was not a match. Like Isabella, Maria Josepha succumbed to smallpox in 1767.

 

Upload: 15 July 2024.

 

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