½ Thaler - Charles VI Breslau

Charles VI's claim to Silesia was already fragile by 1713. The Peace of Utrecht that year resolved the War of the Spanish Succession but left the Habsburg position in the region dependent on the Pragmatic Sanction, which Charles had only just begun circulating among the estates for ratification. Breslau — Wrocław today — was the administrative and commercial heart of Habsburg Silesia, and its mint operated under considerable political pressure to signal continuity of authority during a period when Charles had only recently abandoned his claim to the Spanish throne.

Silesia would remain Habsburg for less than three more decades. Frederick the Great seized it in 1740, within months of Maria Theresa's accession.