Sale: Nomos 5, Lot: 99. Estimate CHF6000.  Closing Date: Monday, 24 October 2011.  Sold For CHF5750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Holy Roman Empire. Joseph II. 1765-1790. Medal (Silver, 79mm, 147.90 g 12), struck to commemorate the coronation of Joseph II as emperor and co-regent over the hereditary Hapsburg lands, ruling jointly with his mother Maria Theresia. Engraved by J. Roettiers, undated but 1765. JOSEPHUS II D:G:R:JMP:S:AUG:G:HIER:R:CORREG: Laureate and cuirassed bust of Joseph to right wearing the collar of the Golden Fleece; on the shoulder truncation, ROËTTIERS F. Rev. PAX ET IUCUNDITAS POPULORUM // INITIA JMPERII / AUG: Female personification standing left, holding a cornucopiae in her left hand and a balance and sword with her right; at her feet, to left, barrels and crates as symbols of commerce and, to right, technical instruments and terrestrial globe symbolizing science; to left, builders at work with a farmer plowing before; to right, soldiers drilling; in tiny letters on the exergual line, ROETTIERS. Bingen p. 114, 9. Y. Kenis, Catalogue des médailles et jetons des Pays-Bas autrichiens (1715-1794) Bruxelles 2000, 51. Probszt, Schaumünzen, 184. Very rare. An impressive and very well preserved medal. Some slight metal porosity, very minor marks and a very slight edge mark, otherwise, good extremely fine.

Born in 1741 Joseph II developed into an enlightened monarch who, never-the-less, was also rather despotic in his actions and thoughts. He was made emperor and co-regent with his mother upon the death of his father, but she kept him under fairly tight control until her own death in 1780. In the end his policies were mostly too enlightened, or too bound with his own autocratic ideas, to be popular: many were canceled or changed after his death.