1/2 Thaler Siege coinage

Braunau am Inn was besieged by Austrian forces in 1743 during the War of the Austrian Succession, after the town had fallen under Bavarian — and briefly French-backed — control. Siege coinage was authorized because the blockade cut off the normal money supply, forcing local authorities to strike emergency issues from whatever silver was available. The improvised nature of production is often visible in the planchets themselves, which were cut from silver plate rather than purpose-milled stock.

Nied#12 places this among a very small documented series from the siege, and surviving examples are correspondingly rare — most were melted or lost once normal coinage resumed after the town's capitulation.