(sold for $21.0)

1804, Austrian Empire, Francis I. Silver Coronation "Sprinkle" Coin. aXF!

Mint Year: 1804
Mint Place: Vienna
Reference: Horsky 3380, Montenuovo 2336.
Condition: Mottled toning, otherwise about XF!
Denomination: Coronation Coin ("Auswurfmuenze" (sprinkle coin) coin for the coronation festivities!)
Diameter: 20mm
Material: Silver
Weight: 2.25gm

Obverse: Bust of Francis II, as Francis I of Austria, right.
Legend: FRANCISCVS ROM . ET AVSTRIAE IMP .

Reverse: Legend in four lines, (HILARITAS PVBLICA VI . I D . DEC . MDCCCIV.) within wreath.
Legend: OB AVSTRIAM HAER . IMP . DIGNITATE ORNATAM .

The Austrian Empire (German: Kaisertum Oesterreich) was a modern era successor empire founded on a remnant of the Holy Roman Empire centered on what is today's Austria that officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by combining the Royal House with that of Hungary creating the dual monarchy Austria-Hungary (also known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867 to 1918), which itself as one of the losers was dissolved at the end of World War I and broken into separate new states). The Austrian Empire was founded by the Habsburg monarch Holy Roman Emperor Francis II (who became Emperor Francis I of Austria), as a state comprising his personal lands within the larger Empire. This was a reaction to Napoleon Bonaparte's proclamation of the First French Empire in 1804.

Francis II (German: Franz II, Heiliger Römischer Kaiser) (12 February 1768 – 2 March 1835) was the last Holy Roman Emperor, ruling from 1792 until 6 August 1806, when he dissolved the Empire after the disastrous defeat of the Third Coalition by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz. In 1804 he had founded the Austrian Empire and became Francis I of Austria (Franz I.), the first Emperor of Austria, ruling from 1804 to 1835, so later he was named the one and only Doppelkaiser (double emperor) in history. For the two years between 1804 and 1806 Francis used the title and style by the grace of God elected Roman Emperor, always August, hereditary Emperor of Austria and he was called the Emperor of both Germany and Austria. He was also Apostolic King of Hungary as I. Ferenc and King of Croatia and Slavonia. Francis I continued his leading role as an opponent of Napoleonic France in the Napoleonic Wars, and suffered several more defeats after Austerlitz. The proxy marriage of state of his daughter Marie Louise of Austria to Napoleon I on March 10, 1810 was assuredly his most severe defeat.

Francis presented himself as an open and approachable monarch (he regularly set aside two mornings each week to meet his imperial subjects, regardless of status, by appointment in his office, even speaking to them in their own language), but his will was sovereign. In 1804, he had no compunction about announcing that through his authority as Holy Roman Emperor, he declared he was now Emperor of Austria (at the time a geographical term that had little resonance). Two years later, Francis personally wound up the moribund Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. Both actions were of dubious constitutional legality.

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