Silver. Diameter 21.8mm.  Wt 1.78gm.  LEOPOLDVS· D: G: R: I: S: A: G: H: BO: REX· His laureate draped bust right, (3) below.  R. ARCHID: AUS: D: BURG: STYRIÆ· 1699· around three shields, (IA) below. Graz mint. KM 1115.  VF-Good VF, pleasant light toning. Good metal, no pitting.

Leopold "the Hogmouth"

The family tree of the Habsburgs, a German-Austrian ruling family whose domains stretched from Portugal to Transylvania, is complex and tangled. In common with other European royal families, the Habsburgs made strategic marriages to increase and consolidate their power, often to close relatives. Generation after generation, the Habsburg monarchs had increasingly jutting jaws, bulbous lower lips and long noses. This distinctive “Habsburg jaw,” the result of inbreeding, led to Leopold I acquiring the nickname of 'the Hogmouth'. The Habsburg family rose to power in central Europe as the rulers of Austria, Germany and eventually the Holy Roman Empire. The family’s controlling influence spread westward to Spain when Philip I, son of the second Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor, married Joan of Castile in 1496. There, the Spanish Habsburgs’ reign lasted for two centuries, until the reign of Charles II, known as “El Hechizado”, (the Bewitched) because of his overly large tongue, epilepsy and other illnesses. He was an imbecile, the result of inbreeding, his mother and father being niece and uncle.

The British Envoy Extraordinary to Spain (1689–1706) and Envoy to the States-General, Alexander Stanhope, wrote to the Duke of Shrewsbury saying “He has a ravenous appetite, and swallows all he eats whole, for his nether jaw stands so much out, that his two rows of teeth cannot meet.”

The impotent and infertile king was twice married, and died in 1700 with no heir.