Item: i106396


Authentic Coin of:

Austria
Bicentennial – Death of Maria Theresia
1980
Proof Silver 500 Schilling 38mm (24.00 grams) 0.640 Silver 
(0.4938 oz. ASW)
Reference: KM# 2949
Certification:
NGC  PF 67 ULTRA CAMEO 2864213-005
· REPUBLIK · 500 SCHILLING 
ÖSTERREICH, Value within circle of shields (on top Austria, and around the 9 
federal states). 
200 TODESTAG MARIA THEREISIAS 1980, Maria
Theresia facing right.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of 
Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.

Maria 
Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina (German: Maria Theresia; 13 May 
1717 – 29 November 1780) was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions 
and the last of the House of Habsburg. She was the sovereign of Austria, 
Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and 
Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands and Parma. By marriage, she was Duchess of 
Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany and Holy Roman Empress.

She started 
her 40-year reign when her father, Emperor Charles VI, died in October 1740. 
Charles VI paved the way for her accession with the Pragmatic Sanction of 
1713 and spent his entire reign securing it. Upon the death of her father, 
Saxony, Prussia, Bavaria, and France all repudiated the sanction they had 
recognised during his lifetime. Frederick II of Prussia (who became Maria 
Theresa’s greatest enemy for most of her reign) promptly invaded and took 
the affluent Habsburg province of Silesia in the nine-year conflict known as 
the War of the Austrian Succession. Over the course of the war, despite the 
loss of Silesia and a few minor territories in Italy, Maria Theresa 
successfully defended her rule over most of the Habsburg empire. Maria 
Theresa later unsuccessfully tried to reconquer Silesia during the Seven 
Years’ War.

Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I, Holy Roman 
Emperor, had eleven daughters, including the Queen of France and Navarre, 
the Queen of Naples and Sicily, the Duchess of Parma, and five sons, 
including two Holy Roman Emperors, Joseph II and Leopold II. Of the sixteen 
children ten survived to adulthood. Though she was expected to cede power to 
Francis and Joseph, both of whom were officially her co-rulers in Austria 
and Bohemia, Maria Theresa was the absolute sovereign who ruled with the 
counsel of her advisers. She criticised and disapproved of many of Joseph’s 
actions. Maria Theresa understood the importance of her public persona 
and was able to simultaneously evoke both esteem and affection from her 
subjects.

Maria Theresa promulgated financial and educational reforms, 
with the assistance of Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz and Gerard van 
Swieten, promoted commerce and the development of agriculture, and 
reorganised Austria’s ramshackle military, all of which strengthened 
Austria’s international standing. However, she refused to allow religious 
pluralism and advocated for the state church and contemporary adversary 
travelers criticized her regime as bigoted and superstitious. As a young 
monarch who fought two dynastic wars, she believed that her cause should be 
the cause of her subjects, but in her later years she would believe that 
their cause must be hers.

Austria, 
officially the Republic of Austria (German: Republik Österreich), 
is a federal republic and a landlocked country of over 8.5 million people in 
Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the 
north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, 
and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The territory of Austria 
covers 83,879 square kilometres (32,386 sq mi). Austria’s terrain is highly 
mountainous, lying within the Alps; only 32% of the country is below 500 
metres (1,640 ft), and its highest point is 3,798 metres (12,461 ft). The 
majority of the population speak local Bavarian dialects of German as their 
native language, and Austrian German in its standard form is the country’s 
official language. Other local official languages are Hungarian, Burgenland 
Croatian, and Slovene.

The 
origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty 
when the vast majority of the country was a part of the Holy Roman Empire. 
From the time of the Reformation, many Northern German princes, resenting 
the authority of the Emperor, used Protestantism as a flag of rebellion. The 
Thirty Years War, the influence of the Kingdom of Sweden and Kingdom of 
France, the rise of the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Napoleonic invasions all 
weakened the power of the Emperor in the North of Germany, but in the South, 
and in non-German areas of the Empire, the Emperor and Catholicism 
maintained control. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Austria was able to 
retain its position as one of the great powers of Europe and, in response to 
the coronation of Napoleon as the Emperor of the French, the Austrian Empire 
was officially proclaimed in 1804. Following Napoleon’s defeat, Prussia 
emerged as Austria’s chief competitor for rule of a larger Germany. 
Austria’s defeat by Prussia at the Battle of Königgrätz, during the 
Austro-Prussian War of 1866 cleared the way for Prussia to assert control 
over the rest of Germany. In 1867, the empire was reformed into 
Austria-Hungary. After the defeat of France in the 1870 Franco-Prussian War, 
Austria was left out of the formation of a new German Empire, although in 
the following decades its politics, and its foreign policy, increasingly 
converged with those of the Prussian-led Empire. During the 1914 July Crisis 
that followed the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, 
Germany guided Austria in issuing the ultimatum to Serbia that led to the 
declaration of World War I.

After the collapse of the Habsburg 
(Austro-Hungarian) Empire in 1918 at the end of World War I, Austria adopted 
and used the name the Republic of German-Austria (Deutschösterreich, 
later Österreich) in an attempt for union with Germany, but was 
forbidden due to the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919). The First 
Austrian Republic was established in 1919. In the 1938 Anschluss, Austria 
was occupied and annexed by Nazi Germany.^[14] This lasted until 
the end of World War II in 1945, after which Germany was occupied by the 
Allies and Austria’s former democratic constitution was restored. In 1955, 
the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state, 
ending the occupation. In the same year, the Austrian Parliament created the 
Declaration of Neutrality which declared that the Second Austrian Republic 
would become permanently neutral.

Today, Austria is a parliamentary 
representative democracy comprising nine federal states. The capital and 
largest city, with a population exceeding 1.7 million, is Vienna. Austria is 
one of the richest countries in the world, with a nominal per capita GDP of 
$52,216 (2014 est.). The country has developed a high standard of living and 
in 2014 was ranked 21st in the world for its Human Development Index. 
Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the 
European Union in 1995, and is a founder of the OECD. Austria also signed 
the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro in 1999.