1680 SILVER HUNGARIAN 15 KRAJCZAR "HOGMOUTH" KB KM-175 (WC060)

Description

This is a very interesting coin about a very interesting King.  At 338 years of age, this coin has seen volumes of history and is quite historical itself.  The coin shows a profile of Hungarian Holy Roman Emperor, King Leopold I, (1640-1705), of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, the longest ruling Habsburg Emperor at 46 years, 9 months from 1658 until his death in 1705.  He was born in Vienna in 1640.  He was well-educated and fluent in several languages and also composed music. Perhaps due to inbreeding among his progenitors, the hereditary Habsburg jaw and lower lip was most prominent in Leopold. Because his jaw and lower lip was depicted unusually large on these silver coins, Leopold was nicknamed "the Hogmouth"; however, most collectors do not believe the coin was an accurate depiction.  Inbreeding was also very common in his day.  In 1666, he married his first wife, Margarita Teresa of Austria born in 1851.  She was 15 years old.  She was also his niece AND his first cousin!  They had four children by the time she died at the young age of 21. He fathered two more children with his second wife, whom died at the age of 22, and then ten more children with his third wife.  Sixteen children in all, however many died in infancy or died an early death.  Although well-heeled, very religious and very intelligent, Leopold's reign was constantly ridden with war and religious conspiracy, involving the Ottoman Empire, France, Germany, Turkey, Serbia and others.