Ave!

Hungary, LOUIS II, AR Denar, 1522

Silver; 13mm/0.05gm

Con/ good Very Fine; Perfectly centered and struck with fresh dies; mint luster. A choice and remarkable example of this issue.

Obv/  No Legend; Curved, pointed fourfold Hungarian coat of arms: Hungarian Árpád stripes, Hungarian double cross, Dalmatian leopard heads, Bohemian lion; on the center chest shield: Eagle. Date 1522 above.

Rev/ No Legend; Crowned Madonna seated with Christ Child on her right arm, Mint mark K-B to either side = Kremnitz Mint.

Seller's Note/ In 1515 Louis II was married to Mary of Austria, granddaughter of Emperor Maximilian I, as stipulated by the First Congress of Vienna in 1515. His sister Anne was married to Mary's brother Ferdinand, then a governor on behalf of his brother Charles V, and later Emperor Ferdinand I. During the greater part of his reign he was the puppet of the magnates and kept in such penury that he was often obliged to pawn his jewels to get enough food and clothing. His guardians, Cardinal Tamás Bakócz and Count George Brandenburg-Ansbach, shamefully neglected him, squandered the royal revenues and distracted the whole kingdom with their endless dissensions. Matters grew even worse on the death of cardinal Bakócz, when the magnates István Báthory, John Zápolya and István Werb?czy fought each other furiously, and used the diets as their tools