6 Sols - Leopold II

This coin belongs to one of the most turbulent transitions in Luxembourg's administrative history. Leopold II became ruler of the Austrian Netherlands — Luxembourg included — following the death of his brother Joseph II in February 1790, inheriting a territory already in open revolt. The Brabant Revolution had driven out Habsburg authority the previous year, and Leopold spent much of 1790 negotiating and maneuvering to reclaim the province before the French Revolutionary armies rendered the question moot within two years.

The 1790 date makes this a first-year issue under Leopold's name, struck during a window of restored Habsburg control that lasted barely long enough to produce a coinage.