Leopold the Hogmouth - Silver 3 Kreuzer - NGC Certified Slab (High Grade)(HG)

Born in Vienna in 1640, Leopold I reigned as Holy Roman Emperor from 1657 until his death in 1705. A man of great culture and learning, a generous patron of the arts, and an amateur composer, Leopold was more of an aesthete than a general. This did not stop him from participating in a number of wars during his reign, including three separate conflicts with Louis XIV's France, none of them successful. He did manage to repulse the Turks from Hungary, which had been held by the Ottomans since the Battle of Mohacs in 1526. He was a staunch Catholic, and strove to cruch Protestantism from his empire. In this, too, he proved unsuccessful.-What history remembers Leopold for, however, is his mandibular pronathism-a genetic defect in which the lower half of the jaw is longer than the upper, a complaint known colloquially as Habsburg jaw.-The royal lines of Europe were famously inbred, and Leopold's line were no exception. First cousins married first cousins, who the married other first cousins, and recessive genetic defects exploded. The egregiously inbred Charles VII of Spain, born with webbed feet and several other physical and mental disabilities, was Leopold's nephew.-Ironically, the portrait of Leopold on this silver coin, his "hogmouth" looking almost cartoonish, is said to not accurately reflect his actual profile. While no one would accuse the Emperor of being a handsome man, Leopold was less deformed than the unflattering portrait he chose to display on his coinage. Indeed, it was this coin that gave rise to the "hogmouth" sobriquet.