Austrian 1700 Vienna Batzen

The 1700 Vienna Batzen stands out for being struck on copper planchets that likely included recycled metal from older, worn coins, a common wartime expedient in the Austrian territories.

This copper piece was minted for everyday transactions in Vienna, helping to stabilize local markets during the early years of the War of the Spanish Succession. At about 20-25 millimeters in diameter, it bore simple designs: the imperial eagle on one side and a nominal value or date on the other. Records from that era are sparse, but we know production occurred at the Vienna mint under Leopold I's reign.

What's less certain is the exact mintage; those figures probably burned up in the 1848 palace fire, along with other archives. Still, as a low-denomination coin, it circulated widely among common folk.

Plenty of these turn up in collections, often with a patina that speaks to their hard life in pockets and purses.

A Batzen like this once paid for a loaf of bread that might have fed a soldier; irony being, wars make for poor appetites.