2 Thalers - Johann Jakob Khuen von Belasi

Johann Jakob Khuen von Belasi served as Archbishop of Salzburg from 1560 to 1586, presiding over the see during the sharpest phase of the Counter-Reformation in the region. He was an aggressive enforcer of Catholic orthodoxy, expelling Protestant miners and tradespeople from Salzburg's salt-producing territories — a move with direct fiscal consequences for the archbishopric's revenues and, by extension, its coinage program. Large silver multiples like this double thaler drew on the enormous wealth generated by the Hallein salt mines, which gave Salzburg's archbishops an economic independence rare among ecclesiastical princes of the Holy Roman Empire.

Khuen von Belasi also played a central role in the founding of the Collegium Germanicum in Rome, co-sponsoring the institution with Cardinal Otto Truchsess von Waldburg as a training ground for German-speaking priests to combat Protestant influence in the Empire.