1/2 Klippe Thaler - Leopold V without chain

Klippe thalers from the Landgraviate of Upper Alsace occupy a peculiar administrative corner of Habsburg coinage. Leopold V ruled Upper Alsace as Archduke from 1619 and was simultaneously Bishop of Passau and Strasbourg before renouncing his ecclesiastical offices upon marriage in 1626 — the "without chain" distinction almost certainly references the absence of the Order of the Golden Fleece collar, which he received only after that transition in dynastic standing.

The square-cut flan was not decorative whimsy. Klippe formats were frequently produced for presentation purposes or as emergency issues when round planchet supply was disrupted, and the Thirty Years' War, which consumed this entire date range, created exactly those conditions in Alsatian minting.