1923) Modern Day "Maria Theresa Thaler", Austria: Silver Thaler (or "Taler") minted by the Austrian Mint is a very popular collector item even today:
About Maria Theresa:
At the end of her eventful life, Maria Theresa received greater love from her peoples than she did in the stressful opening years of her rule.
The popular perception of the military ineptitude of her husband and the mauling her armies received in the initial struggles with Frederick the Great impacted negatively on popular opinion of the young couple and their capabilities.
In time, however, her devotion to family, the arrival of a male heir among her ceaseless pregnancies, her growing knowledge of statecraft and successful replacement of aged and fossilized retainers inherited from her father brought stability to her beleaguered government and popularity to herself.
Following Habsburg tradition, she arranged politically favorable marriages for her daughters, though two of these coincided with an earth-shaking age of revolution soon to begin.
Maria Carolina married the ignorant and oafish Ferdinand IV of Bourbon, king of the Two Sicilies (Naples and Sicily). Marie Antoinette married the slow-moving King Louis XVI of France; she and her husband lost their heads in the great French Revolution.
At the time of her death, Maria Theresa was revered as the mother of her people, distinguished by intense reverence for the Catholic Church, balanced by lifelong suspicious of her Protestant subjects and unchanging distaste for Jews in her dominions.
Her son Emperor Joseph II quickly introduced what he viewed as religious reforms that brought upheaval in church-state relations and revolution in the Austrian Netherlands.
During her long reign, the Habsburg lands continued to be served by a number of widely separated Mints, but Maria Theresa’s coinage had achieved substantial uniformity by 1780.
More about Maria Theresa Thalers (or Talers):
The word "Dollar" is derived from the German word "Thaler/Taler".
The Maria Theresa Thaler was originally struck in Austria between 1740 and 1780.
It was the circulating currency of the Holy Roman Empire and its dominions and it was one of the most important trade coins in Europe and the world.
Since the death of Maria Theresa in 1780, the coin has always been dated 1780.
It has been continuously minted in various mints around the world: Birmingham, Bombay, Brussels, London, Paris, Rome, and Utrecht, in addition to the Habsburg mints in Günzburg, Hall, Karlsburg, Kremnica, Milan, Prague, and Vienna. It is still sold by the Vienna mint.
Her Silver Talers show five basic portraits of the monarch as she aged, while each Mint’s Reverses are distinguished by clear varieties of the ornate Imperial Eagle and Arms. Thalers were also in several varieties and minted at the struck at the Vienna Mint, Gunzburg Mint, Rome London etc.
Thalers were also struck in - The Levant (present day Lebanon, Palestine and Syria), Arabia, and the Horn of Africa. It is not very clear, as to, why the coin referred to as “the Maria Theresa Taler” achieved and kept its unique popularity in exotic lands so distant from its birthplace until the mid-20th century.
The famous Taler arrived in the Levant (today’s Lebanon, Palestine and Syria almost as soon as it was struck.
Here merchants, traders and money-changers generally had no knowledge of any western languages. However, Eastern merchants who cannot read the Western scripts, were amazingly astute, with sharp eyes and a keen sense of weight, easily able to detect underweight and counterfeit coins and fast to reject any unfamiliar coins regardless of design because their livings depended on such skills.
The Vienna Mint was quick to recognize the Maria Theresa Taler’s popularity and laboured throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries to supply the growing demand.
By the 1860’s these Talers became the backbone of commerce in the Arab world from Yemen and Aden through the hostile terrain of the Hadramaut to Oman and the Trucial States on the Persian Gulf, and in the interior realms of Hijjaz and Nejd.
Interestingly, several cut and counter-stamped Talers were circulating here - items inserted, included Talers stamped "HIJJAZ" and "NEJD" and pieces from the Red Sea and Indian Ocean islands, later in the French colonies that remain debatable today as to authenticity.
The Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen used Talers as ready-made planchets for its Islamic-style coins bearing only Koranic inscriptions and the kings’ titles that are reasonable common and affordable today.
In the Horn of Africa the Taler’s dominance was complete. As the chaotic realm of Ethiopia began to be unified under Emperor Menelik II, the coin was referred to as the "talari" or "birr" (the name "Birr" still continues to be used for Ethiopian currency till the present day).
It was used throughout the empire, despite introduction of a distinctive national coinage struck in Paris bearing the emperor’s crowned bust and the Lion of Judah. These handsome pieces were called "Faransa", French, and failed to dislodge the beloved Taler.
These beautiful Talari were .835 fine silver, higher quality than the .833 silver of the Maria Theresa coin but neither higher silver content nor national pride in the crowned portrait of the “All-Conquering Lion of Judah, Elect of God, King of Kings of Ethiopia” mattered to the profoundly conservative peoples inhabiting the Horn of Africa.
There are over 150 different major variants, and virtually all dies produced before 1850 had minor differences. Subtle differences in design, style, and lettering allow determining at least partly the date and the mint. Some variations are very rare, with 10 pieces or less being known to exist.
Along with the Spanish 8 Reales coin, it was the basis of the Silver Dollar which was adopted by the then-fledgling United States under the Mint Act of 1792.
Also known as the Levant dollar, it also circulated as trade coinage in the Arab world (especially in Saudi Arabia, the Yemen, Syria, Muscat, and Oman), in Africa (especially in Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique), in India and Indonesia. It remains in circulation to this day in conflict areas in the Middle East and Africa.
The Modern Day Maria Theresa Thaler (or "Taler") struck at the Vienna Mint, Austria:
A modern day Maria Theresa Silver Taler minted by the Austrian Mint, Vienna placed against a background image of Maria Theresa
A historical souvenir combining beauty of design with the value of silver, the "Maria Theresa Taler" is one of the Austrian Mint’s most internationally recognised coins.
One of the most famous silver coins in the world, it is also one of the most minted, having been continuously re-struck since 1857.
The Reverse of the Taler bears the portrait of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, facing right.
The first Taler was struck in 1741. Originally issued in 1780, the year of her death, the present coin shows the Empress in her later years on its obverse.
The Obverse shows the imperial crown flanked by a pair of eagle heads above a shield covered in different Coats of Arms.
Although legal tender in Austria until 1858, in many African countries the Maria Theresa Taler was still used as legal tender during the Second World War.
The specifications of the Maria Theresa struck by the Austrian Mint in modern times are :
Coin Quality: Brilliant Uncirculated (BU); Diameter/Size: 42.0 mm; Metal Composition: .8333 Fineness Silver (Ag); Fine Weight: 23.30 grams; Total Weight: 28.07 grams.
Remarks: Packaging comes in a blister pack featuring information in German and English.
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