Masson - Leopold I

Leopold I ruled the Duchy of Lorraine as a largely powerless buffer between France and the Holy Roman Empire, a position he navigated through careful diplomacy and calculated neutrality. By 1728, he had spent decades rebuilding a duchy left devastated by the Thirty Years' War, restoring towns, repopulating villages, and reforming the currency — the billon coinage of this period reflects both the modest economic recovery and the persistent shortage of silver that plagued smaller German and Alsatian territories throughout the early eighteenth century.

Leopold died in 1729, just a year after this issue. His only surviving son, Francis Stephen, would eventually cede Lorraine to France in exchange for Tuscany in 1737.