2021-09-17 Fri

This gold ducat klippe was issued in 1529 which was struck in Vienna during the Ottoman siege on the city.

The siege of Vienna in 1529 was the first of two sieges conducted by the Ottoman Turks against the city. After a successful military campaign in Hungary, the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I advanced on Vienna with an enormous force in the fall of 1529. However, due to poor weather and a strong defense of the city, he was soon forced to abandon the siege.

This event was a high water mark for the Turkish expansion. For more than a century afterward, the Ottoman Empire would not have the power to threaten central Europe. During the first siege, a number of coins were issued to meet demand inside Vienna.

An example of this coinage is a 1529 gold ducat klippe of Ferdinand I. It depicts a bust of Ferdinand I on the obverse, with the crowned heraldic shields of Bohemia, Lower Austria, Castile and Hungary on the reverse.

Image Courtesy: coinworld.com