2 Souverains - Maria Theresa Vienna type 1

The Austrian Netherlands presented a persistent administrative headache for Vienna throughout the 1750s: the region ran on a patchwork of local monetary conventions poorly aligned with Habsburg imperial standards. The 2 Souverains issues of this period were struck at the Vienna mint specifically because the Brussels mint lacked the capacity and die infrastructure to produce adequate quantities during the early years of Maria Theresa's consolidation of Netherlands coinage.

The Seven Years' War, which broke out in 1756, complicated distribution of this coinage into the Low Countries considerably. Some shipments were delayed or rerouted entirely due to troop movements across the southern provinces.