(Vendue pour $213.0)

1782, Kingdom of Hungary, Joseph II.  Silver  Madonna Thaler Coin. Kremnitz! GENI AU+

Mint Year: 1782 (B) Reference: KM-395.1. Mint Place: Kremnitz (B) Denomination:  Thaler (also known as Madonna  Thaler) State: Kingdom of Hungary (as part of the Holy Roman Empire) Condition: Certified and slabbed by GENI (a French third-party certifying service for coins) as AU Details (Cleaning!) Diameter: 41.05mm Weight: 28.05gm Material: Silver

Obverse:  Crown of St. Stephen, supported by flying angels, above  Hungarian arms within Maria-Theresa-Order. Sprays below. Legend: IOS . II . D . G . R . IMP . S . A . G . H . B . REX . A . A . D . B . & . L . Reverse:  Crowned Virgin (Madonna), holding scepter, orb and Baby-Jesus-Child,  seated in clouds and stepped on crescent below. Legend: S . MARIA MATER DEI (B) PATRONA HVNG . 1782 . X

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Joseph Benedikt Anton Michael  Adam (March 13, 1741 - February 20, 1790) was Holy Roman  Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to  1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband,  Francis I. Joseph was a proponent of enlightened absolutism. He has  substantially modernized his empire, introduced religious freedom and  standard human rights for Jews, abolished serfdom and censorship,  introduced a working network of hospitals, a new cadastre, a universal  tax system, helped to expand manufacturing, and approved 6,000  additional decrees. Some of these reforms faced a vehement opposition by  peasants and lords in several kingdoms and largely failed (e.g. in  Hungary) but he gained immense popularity in other, more developed  kingdoms, especially Bohemia where the name "Josef" became the most  popular male first name.

The death  of Maria Theresa on November 29, 1780, left Joseph free. He immediately  directed his government on a new course. He proceeded to attempt to  realize his ideal of enlightened despotism acting on a definite system  for the good of all. The measures of emancipation of the peasantry which  his mother had begun were carried on by him with feverish activity. The  spread of education, the secularization of church lands, the reduction  of the religious orders and the clergy in general to complete submission  to the lay state, the issue of the Patent of Tolerance (1781) providing  limited guarantee of freedom of worship, the promotion of unity by the  compulsory use of the German languageâ€"everything which from the point  of view of 18th century philosophy, the Age of Enlightenment, appeared  "reasonable"â€"were undertaken at once. He strove for administrative  unity with characteristic haste to reach results without  preparation.

In addition, Joseph  abolished serfdom in 1781. Later, in 1789, he decreed that peasants must  be paid in cash payments rather than labor obligations. These policies  were violently rejected by both the nobility and the peasants, since  their barter economy lacked money.

Also he abolished the death penalty in 1787 and it remained until 1795.