Antique Maximilian HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE Coin Medal BUTTONS VERY UNUSUAL ITEMS made into buttons long ago A MYSTERY Start Price USD 19.00 Current Price USD 19.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Tuesday, August 26, 2008 End Time Tuesday, September 02, 2008 Location COAST of MAINE See more about 'Antique Maximilian HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE Coin Medal BUTTONS' Description GREETINGS!!! PLEASE NOTE - I WILL BE LISTING OTHER UNUSUAL & INTERESTING ITEMS FROM THIS ESTATE .....ALWAYS HAPPY TO COMBINE SHIPPING.....SO CLICK HERE TO VIEW MY OTHER CURRENT AUCTIONS. In THIS auction you are bidding on A VERY INTERESTING & UNUSUAL PAIR OF COINS or COMMEMORATIVE MEDALS THAT WERE CONVERTED INTO BUTTONS A VERY LONG TIME AGO.Age is antique but exact age unknownI believe that these were made to commemorate MAXIMILIAN in some way - possibly for becoming the Head of the Holy Roman Empire in 1493  , following the death of his Father Emperor Frederick lllI WELCOME ANY ADDITIONAL INFO FROM THE EXPERTS OUT THERE IN EBAYLANDEach measures 7/8" Made of some type of silver or silver metalFront reads: CAES MAXIMILIANUS 1493 POT MAX INV Back is plain but there appears to have been something in the center - under where the button loop was soldered on...(FYI)Maximilian was born in Wiener Neustadt as the son of the Emperor Frederick III and Eleanor of Portugal. He married (1477) the heiress of Burgundy, Mary, the only daughter of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. Through this marriage, Maximilian obtained the Burgundian Netherlands and the Free County of Burgundy, although he lost the Duchy of Burgundy to France upon the death of his wife.In 1491, he bought Tyrol and Further Austria from his cousin Sigismund, the last member of the Elder Tyrolean Line of the House of Habsburg. Upon the death of his father in 1493, he inherited the rest of the Habsburg possessions and thus reunified all Habsburg territories. That same year Maximilian married Bianca Maria Sforza (d. 1510), the daughter of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan as he had been a widower since the death of his first wife in 1482.Maximilian governed his first wife's vast inheritance in the Low Countries, and he prosecuted a war over them with Louis XI, King of France on her behalf. Upon the Duke of Burgundy's death in 1477, the Duchy of Burgundy had been claimed by the French crown under Salic Law. Louis further attempted to expand his control into the Burgundian Netherlands. Mary, who was only 20 and yet unmarried, refused a proposed marriage to the Dauphin as a way to settle the dispute, and when she married Maximilian less than a year after her father's death, she used his power to try to take back the parts of her father's lands Louis had acquired. Maximilian was successful in the war and in stabilizing the Netherlands, but some of the Netherland provinces were hostile to him, and when Mary died unexpectedly in March 1482, they signed a treaty with Louis in 1482 which forced Maximilian to give Franche Comté and Artois to Louis. Louis died in 1483 and his successor, Charles VIII of France, was a minor whose regent, Anne of France, ended France's bellicosity for a time. Maximilian continued to govern Mary's remaining inheritance in the name of their young son, Philip the Handsome. After the regency ended, Maximilian and Charles VIII exchanged these two territories for Burgundy and Picardy in the Treaty of Senlis (1493). Thus ultimately much of the Netherlands became and remained a Habsburg possession.Elected King of the Romans in 1486 at his father's initiative, he also stood at the head of the Holy Roman Empire upon his father's death in 1493. After he married Bianca Maria Sforza, a daughter of the Duke of Milan on 16 March 1494, Maximilian sought to expand his power in parts of Italy.[1] This brought French intervention in Italy, inaugurating the prolonged Italian Wars.[1] He joined the Holy League to counter the French and lost, but after his death the Empire had ultimately won. Maximilian was also forced to grant independence to Switzerland,where he had tried to re-establish the lost Habsburg dominance.He is possibly best known for leading the 1495 Reichstag at Worms which concluded on the Reichsreform ("Imperial Reform"), reshaping much of the constitution of the Holy Roman Empire. In the 1499 Treaty of Basel, Maximilian was forced to acknowledge the de-facto independence of the Swiss confederacy from the Empire as a result of the Battle of Dornach.In 1508, Maximilian, with Pope Julius II's assent, took the title of Erwählter Römischer Kaiser ("Elected Roman Emperor"), thus ending the centuries-old custom that the Holy Roman Emperor had to be crowned by the pope.A WELCOME ADDITION FOR HISTORY BUFFS & BUTTON COLLECTORS The CONDITION is as shown . (see my photos) Some light age tarnish. Loop on one is slightly bent PLEASE READ I am not an expert on this type of item & my opinion on condition or my knowledge of specific details relating to the item may be may be different from the trained eye (and expertise) of the collector - therefore - I encourage you to email me before bidding if my photos & description do not cover all of your questions or concerns. * Here is some fine print type mumbo jumbo  Please read description carefully & view all photos before bidding - especially in any “as-is” or “as found “ stated auctions (as these are no return auctions). We pride ourselves in packing all items as safely and as securely as possible ... and always do our best to describe items accurately. However ...we are just people and therefore..... If we ever unintentionally misrepresent any item that we offer and you are not satisfied ..we will always work with you (just let us know within 3 days of receipt of item) Transaction needs to be confirmed within 3 days of auction ending....and Payment to be received within 10 days from closing date or seller has the option to offer the item to the under-bidder or re-list. PLEASE CHECK OUR OUTSTANDING FEEDBACK and BID WITH TOTAL CONFIDENCE!!! Place a Bid!