Thaler

Examples of German and Austrian Thalers compared to a US quarter piece

The Thaler (or Taler) was a silver coin used throughout Europe for almost four hundred years. Its name lives on in various currencies as the dollar or tolar.

Contents

1 Origin
2 The Joachimsthaler
3 Later German Thaler
4 Dutch Thaler
5 Scandinavian Daler
6 Other \"Thaler\"
7 Legacy
8 See also

Origin

The roots and development of the Thaler-sized silver coin date back to the mid-1400s. As the fifteenth century drew to a close the state of much of Europe's coinage was quite poor because of repeated debasement induced by the costs of continual warfare, and by the incessant centuries-long loss of silver and gold in indirect one-sided trades importing spices and porcelain and silk and other fine cloths and exotic goods from India, Indonesia and the Far East. This continual debasement had reached a point that silver content in coins had dropped, in some cases, to less than five percent, making the coins of much less individual value than they had in the beginning.

Countering this trend, with the discovery and mining of silver deposits in Europe, Italy began the first tentative steps toward a large silver coinage with the introduction in 1472 of the lira tron in excess of six grams, a substantial increase over the, roughly, four-gram gros tournois of France.

In 1474 a nine gram lira was issued but it was in 1484 that Archduke Sigismund of Tyrol issued the first truly revolutionary silver coin, the half Guldengroschen of roughly 15½ grams. This was a very rare coin, almost a trial piece, but it did circulate so successfully that demand could not be met.

Finally, with the silver deposits—being mined at Schwaz—to work with and his mint at Hall, Sigismund issued, in 1486, large numbers of the first true Thaler-sized coin, the Guldengroschen (great gulden, being of silver but equal in value to a Goldgulden).

The Guldengroschen, nicknamed the guldiner, was an instant and unqualified success. Soon it was being copied widely by many states who had the necessary silver. The engravers, no less affected by the Renaissance than were other artists, began creating intricate and elaborate designs featuring the heraldric arms and standards of the minting state as well as brutally realistic, sometimes unflattering, depictions of the ruler (monarch).

The Joachimsthaler

By 1518 guldiners were popping up everywhere in central Europe. In Bohemia, then controlled by the Habsburg monarchs, a guldiner was minted—of similar physical size but slightly less fineness—that was named the Joachimsthaler from the silver mined at a rich source near Joachimsthal (St. Joachim's Valley, Czech: Jáchymov) (now in the Czech Republic) where thal means "valley". St. Joachim, the father of the Virgin Mary, was portrayed on the coin. This new Thaler was finally the coin that Europe was looking for to create a standard for commerce.

Later German Thaler

The zenith of Thaler minting occurred in the 17th century with the so-called "multiple Thalers". Some of these coins reached colossal size, nearing a full pound (nearly 375 g) of silver and being over 12 cm in diameter. These are very rare, often costing tens of thousands of dollars, and are highly sought after by serious collectors of Thalers.

In the Holy Roman Empire, the Thaler was used as the standard against which the various states' currencies could be valued. One standard was the Reichsthaler, which contained one ninth of a Cologne mark of silver. In 1754, the Conventionsthaler was introduced, containing one tenth of a Cologne mark of silver.

Prussia used a Thaler containing one fourteenth of a Cologne mark of silver. In 1837, the Prussian Thaler became part of a new currency used in southern Germany and the Rhineland, with the Gulden (equal to 4/7 Thaler) as the standard unit of account. By 1850, nearly all German states used this standard of Thaler, though with various different subdivisions.

In 1857, the Vereinsthaler was adopted in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and through most of Germany. Vereinsthalers continued to be issued until 1871 in Germany and 1867 in Austria-Hungary.

Dutch Thaler

The Dutch Thaler depicted a lion; hence its Dutch name was leeuwendaalder, German löwenthaler; the name of the coin lives on as leu (plural lei), still the name of the Romanian and Moldovan currencies.

Scandinavian Daler

The Thaler was introduced and became the most spread currency in Scandinavia under the name Daler during the early 17th century. The Daler was in circulation in (Denmark and Sweden) until 1873 when it was replaced by the crown, the new currency introduced by the Scandinavian Monetary Union. Norway joined the Monetary Union and introduced the Krone in 1876.

Other \"Thaler\"

As silver flooded into the European economy from domestic and overseas sources, Thalers and Thaler-sized coins were minted all over with equivalent coins such as the crown, daalder from which the English word dollar is derived, krona, and eventually the peso being issued and in widespread use. Indeed, in England the word dollar was in use for the Thaler for 200 years before the issue of the United States dollar, and until the half crown ceased to be used following decimalisation in 1971, the term "half a dollar" could be heard for "half a crown".

Legacy

No currency currently in circulation is named thaler. Several, however, are acknowledging its legacy with their names: twenty-three currencies named dollar, used in countries including the United States of America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong, and tolar, used in Slovenia.