1 Lira - Leopold II

Mantua's 1791 billon coinage was struck in the final months before the French Revolutionary Wars would permanently destabilize the duchy's monetary arrangements. Leopold II had ascended to the Habsburg throne just the previous year following Joseph II's death, inheriting an empire already rattled by Belgian revolt and Hungarian unrest. Mantua itself, as a key Austrian fortress city in the Po Valley, remained under tight imperial control — but not for long. French forces under Bonaparte would besiege and take Mantua in February 1797, ending over two centuries of Habsburg administration.