2 Thalers - Leopold I St Veit

1683 is the year of the second Ottoman siege of Vienna — the largest Ottoman military force ever assembled in Europe camped outside the city walls from July through September. Leopold I himself had fled the capital weeks before the siege began, a decision that earned him considerable ridicule. The relief came on September 12th when a Polish-Habsburg coalition under Jan Sobieski routed Kara Mustafa's army at the Battle of Kahlenberg. St. Veit am Glan, the Carinthian mint responsible for this piece, was one of several provincial facilities kept active precisely because Vienna's own operations were periodically disrupted by the pressures of that campaign.