Maria Theresia had been on the throne barely three years when this piece was struck at Graz, still fighting the War of the Austrian Succession against Frederick the Great and a coalition that had dismembered significant Habsburg territory. Financing that war required maintaining small-denomination coinage across all active mints simultaneously — Graz, Vienna, Hall, and others ran parallel billon production throughout the early 1740s. The Styrian mint at Graz was particularly active in this period precisely because its regional output could be deployed locally without the transport risks associated with centralizing production at Vienna.
Maria Theresia had been on the throne barely three years when this piece was struck at Graz, still fighting the War of the Austrian Succession against Frederick the Great and a coalition that had dismembered significant Habsburg territory. Financing that war required maintaining small-denomination coinage across all active mints simultaneously — Graz, Vienna, Hall, and others ran parallel billon production throughout the early 1740s. The Styrian mint at Graz was particularly active in this period precisely because its regional output could be deployed locally without the transport risks associated with centralizing production at Vienna.