Austrian Mint Launches Tyrolean Resistance Fighters Coins Featuring Andreas Hofer

The year 1809 was an important one for Austria in her fight against Napoleon and revolutionary France. On 21st to 22nd May the emperor’s brother, Archduke Charles, became the first general ever to defeat Napoleon in open battle, and in April a folk uprising in Tyrol against its occupation by Bavarian and French troops had begun.

Andreas Hofer (1767-1810) was the innkeeper of the inn "Am Sand" in Tyrol, but he soon became the recognised leader of the Tyrolean revolt against the French and the Bavarians, who, besides being a foreign regime, were also trying to push through their revolutionary ideas of reform and had begun to abolish religious processions and pious practices held dear by the deeply religious catholics of Tyrol. Read the rest of this entry »