2 Florins - Francis Joseph I

1866 was the year Austria lost the Austro-Prussian War, a seven-week catastrophe that ended Hapsburg influence over the German states permanently. The 2 Florin denomination had been introduced in 1857 as part of Austria's adoption of the Vienna Monetary Treaty coinage system, intended to facilitate trade across the German customs union — an alliance that collapsed with the same war these coins were struck during.

KM#2231 is specific to the 1866 date; the type was discontinued shortly after as Austria reformed its coinage under mounting fiscal pressure from war indemnities owed to Prussia.