1/2 Groschen - Ludwig Jagiellon (Polish-Lithuanian Coinage 1450-1550)

     Louis was the son of Ladislaus V Jagiello and his fourth wife, Anne de Foix. Upon his fatehr's death in 1516, the minor Louis II ascended to the throne of Hungary and Bohemia. Louis had been adopted by Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I in 1515. In 1519, after Maximilian I died, Louis was raised by his legal guardian Georg von Hohenzollern, margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach. Louis owed allegiance to the Imperial Habsburgs as a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece.

     In 1522 Louis II was married to a Habsburg princess, Mary of Habsburg, granddaughter of Maximilian I, as stipulated by an Imperial congress at Vienna in 1515. His sister Anne was married to Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, then a governor on behalf of his brother Charles V, and later Emperor Ferdinand I. Louis died at the Battle of Mohács in 1526. Ferdinand and Anne succeeded him in his Kingdom of Bohemia, but Hungary, largely conquered by the Turks, was further put into succession dispute between John Zápolya on one hand and Ferdinand and Anne on the other.

     The copins listed were minted in Swidnica, Poland. Swidnica, or Schweidnitz (German), as a town traditionally dates back to 1250. But no founding act has survived that would confirm this fact. In the beginning, the town belonged to the Princedom of Wroclaw and experienced two important privileges conducive to its development. By 1290, Swidnica had city walls and six gates, crafts and trade were blossoming, and it had become the capital of the entire princedom. At the end of the 14th century the city was under control of Bohemia, part of the Holy Roman Empire and a long period of growth began. In 1471, there were 47 trade guilds in operation, nearly 300 homes had the rights to brew beer, and large cattle and hops fairs were organized.