Misplaced Pages

#721278

67-544: The Reichsthaler ( German: [ˈʁaɪçsˌtaːlɐ] ; modern spelling Reichstaler ), or more specifically the Reichsthaler specie , was a standard thaler silver coin introduced by the Holy Roman Empire in 1566 for use in all German states, minted in various versions for the next 300 years, and containing 25–26 grams fine silver. Reichsthaler was also the name of a currency unit worth less than

134-403: A 3-guilder coin was thought to better fit in the series of denominations. This turned out to be a mistake (due to the high silver price ) and from 1840 onward 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 -guilder coins were produced again. Production stopped in 2002 due to the introduction of the euro . 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 -guilder coins continued to be called by their nicknames rijksdaalder , riks , and knaak until

201-541: A Cologne Mark of fine silver, or 25.984 g. It was widely adopted and produced for the next 300 years at rates varying from 9 to 9 1 ⁄ 4 Reichsthalers to the Mark . See the chronology of thaler development for the development of the Reichsthaler and related currency units from 1566 to 1875. Confusingly, there also was defined a North German thaler currency (also called Reichsthalers ) of less value to

268-516: A Cologne Mark. The Zinnaische currency standard of 1667 was the first to define the North German thaler , de jure , as a currency unit worth less than the Reichsthaler specie . The succeeding Leipzig standard of 1690 then became the prevailing thaler and gulden currencies throughout the Holy Roman Empire . A summary of the thaler standards, in brief: All North German thalers and Vereinsthalers were retired after 1873 in favor of

335-818: A bullion entrepôt of the period, the Netherlands produced reichsthalers for Germany and Scandinavia, and exported leeuwendaalders to the Levant and the Ottoman Empire . The latter survives to this day in the form of the Bulgarian lev , Romanian leu , and Moldovan leu . Lion Daalders were used a lot in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and in what's now known as the USA. The city of New Amsterdam, currently New York,

402-637: A distortion of the name Joachim. The new large silver coins that became ubiquitous as the 16th century went on were named Thaler in German, while in England and France, they were named crown and écu , respectively, both names taken from what had originally been gold coins . The thaler size silver coins minted in Habsburg Spain was the eight real coin , later also known as peso and in English as

469-466: A point that silver content in Groschen -type 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. This trend was inverted with the discovery of new and substantial silver deposits in Europe beginning in about the 1470s. Italy began the first tentative steps toward a large silver coinage with the introduction in 1472 of

536-657: A replacement to the ounce-sized coin resulted in the Reichsthaler , 1 ounce silver of 8/9 fineness (hence, 9 to a Cologne Mark or 25.984 g fine), and fixed at 68 kreuzer . The new coin was popularly accepted but at a higher value of 72 kreuzer or 1.2 Gulden. It consequently doomed the (now-overvalued) gulden coin. Reichsthalers prevailed as circulating coin, and the gulden again became an uncoined currency unit equivalent to 25.984/1.2 = 21.653 g fine silver. This Reichsthaler specie or coin would continue to be divided into 24 groschen but would rise in value vs currency at 1.5 Gulden or 90 kreuzer by 1615. The Dutch adopted it as

603-542: A weight of 6 grams. Even these coins were increasingly debased due to the Great Bullion Famine of the 15th century which occurred for several reasons including continued warfare and the centuries-long loss of silver and gold in indirect one-sided trades importing spices , porcelain , silk and other fine cloths and exotic goods from India, Indonesia and the Far East. This continual debasement had reached

670-695: The Vereinsthaler . The thaler silver coin type continued to be minted until the 20th century in the form of the Mexican peso until 1914, the five Swiss franc coin until 1928, the US silver dollar until 1935, and the Austrian Maria Theresa thaler . These days thaler-sized silver coins are not in active circulation anymore, but are minted by various government mints as bullion or numismatic items for collectors. The current derivative of

737-717: The Swedish riksdaler (1604) and the Danish rigsdaler (1625). In the early 19th century, these countries introduced their modern currency based on the daler unit. In Norway, speciedaler was chosen as the currency name in 1816. These currencies in Denmark and Sweden were replaced by the Danish krone and Swedish krona in 1873, the new currencies introduced by the Scandinavian Monetary Union . Norway joined

SECTION 10

#1732786669722

804-489: The Joachimsthaler , it was a coin that succeeded in the era of abundant precious metals in the 16th century, and was a natural choice of unit for a unified German currency. The Reichsmünzordnung were a series of minting ordinances of the Holy Roman Empire defining the monetary system that would unify the numerous disparate currencies of its member states. The ordinance of 1524 defined two coins of equal value to

871-535: The rijksdaalder with 25.40 g fine silver and valued at 2.5 Dutch guilders as of 1618. The Thirty Years' War 1618-48 and the Kipper und Wipper financial crisis of 1618-23 led to widespread currency debasements of up to 10 gulden to a Reichsthaler specie. It destroyed the financial system created during the Reichsmünzordnung era as well as Empire's centralized authority over the states. After 1630

938-620: The Bohemian lion . Similar coins began to be minted in neighbouring valleys rich in silver deposits, each named after the particular 'thal' or valley from which the silver was extracted. There were soon so many of them that these silver coins began to be known more widely as 'thaler' in German and 'tolar' in Czech. In the 17th century, some Joachimsthalers were in circulation in the Tsardom of Russia , where they were called yefimok ( ефимок ) –

1005-680: The French franc was established, with the 5-franc coin of 25.0 g, 90% fine silver being closest in size to the thalers used elsewhere. The French franc system would be expanded to other countries in the advent of the Latin Monetary Union of 1865. The Thirteen Cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy and their Associates each minted their own coins, with most larger silver coins conforming to established German or French standards. Thaler and half thaler coins were minted by

1072-589: The German gold mark , with each mark containing 100 ⁄ 279 gram of fine gold, at the rate of 1 thaler = 3 marks, or a gold ratio of 15.5. The Reichsthaler specie was widely issued in Germany for 200 years but was discontinued in many states after 1754 in favor of the lighter Conventionsthaler of 1 ⁄ 10 th a Cologne Mark or 23.3856 g fine silver. However it survived both as coin and bank money in several Northern European states until they adopted

1139-709: The Jagiellonian dynasty , a guldiner was minted — of similar physical size but slightly less fineness —that was named in German the Joachimsthaler , from the silver mined by the Counts of Schlick at a rich source near Joachimsthal (today Jáchymov in the Czech Republic ) where Thal (Tal) means "valley" in German. Saint Joachim , the father of the Virgin Mary , was portrayed on the coin along with

1206-747: The Netherlands include the daalder , the rijksdaalder and the leeuwendaalder . From 1754, many German states used the Conventionsthaler as well as a lower-valued North German thaler or Reichsthaler worth 3 ⁄ 4 the Conventionsthaler. From 1840 the various North German thalers converged to the value of the Prussian thaler and afterwards the Vereinsthaler . The corresponding English silver coin of

1273-755: The Netherlands Indies gulden was replaced by the Indonesian rupiah . The Netherlands United East India Company (VOC) issued the rijksdaalder in the Cape Colony in the 17th century. The Dutch monetary system overseas of a rijksdaalder – or rixdollar – of 48 stuiver was continued in the Cape Province by the British in the early nineteenth century. In Ceylon , the VOC issued coins during

1340-534: The Reichsthaler specie introduced by several North German states from the 17th century; discussed separately under North German thaler . Several old books confusingly use the same term Reichsthaler for the specie silver coin as well as the currency unit. This is disambiguated by referring to the full-valued coin as the Reichsthaler specie and the lower-valued currency unit as the Reichsthaler currency (courant, kurant) . The Reichsthaler – literally,

1407-541: The Renaissance than were other artists, began creating intricate and elaborate designs featuring the heraldic arms and standards of the minting state as well as brutally realistic, sometimes unflattering, depictions of the ruler (monarch). By 1518, guldiners of similar weight to guldengroschen were popping up everywhere in central Europe. In the Kingdom of Bohemia , then ruled together with Hungary by Louis II of

SECTION 20

#1732786669722

1474-460: The Venetian lira tron in excess of 6 grams, a substantial increase over the 4-gram gros tournois of France. However, it was only in 1484 that Archduke Sigismund of Tirol issued the first truly revolutionary silver coin, the half Guldengroschen of roughly 15 g. This was a very rare coin, almost a trial piece, but it did circulate so successfully that demand could not be met. Finally, with

1541-711: The Vereinsthaler . The Maria Theresa taler became the de facto currency of the Ethiopian Empire in the late 18th century, with the Ethiopian birr introduced at par with this taler, and it continued to be in use into the 20th century in the Horn of Africa , Eastern Africa , India and throughout much of the Arabian Peninsula . Though various silver thaler coins were minted in most of Europe until

1608-546: The dollar of the realm – was the most successful standard silver coin resulting from the 1524–1559 Reichsmünzordnungen or 'imperial minting ordinances' defining a uniform currency standard for the states of the Holy Roman Empire . Below is a history (in terms of grams of silver) of the Reichsthaler specie and its predecessor, the Guldengroschen ; as well as the Gulden currency unit used before 1618. The history of

1675-688: The gold standard in 1875. In 1583 the Dutch rijksdaalder coin of 25.40 g fine silver was the counterpart of the reichsthaler in the Dutch Republic . From 1608 to 1659 it then functioned as bank money of the Bank of Amsterdam ( Amsterdam Wisselbank ), worth 2.5 gulden banco and representing 25.40 g fine silver actually received. From 1659 to 1800 the bank money was redefined as the Silver Dukat of 24.36 g fine silver worth 2.4 gulden banco, which

1742-486: The " Spanish dollar ". The first large silver coin standardized by the Holy Roman Empire was the Guldengroschen in 1524. Under the new Imperial Minting Standard ( Reichsmünzfuß ) it weighed 1 ⁄ 8 th a Cologne Mark of silver or 29.232 g, and had a fineness 0.9375. However, its longest-lasting standard coin was the Reichsthaler ("imperial thaler") defined in 1566 as containing 1 ⁄ 9 th

1809-594: The 1530s enabled the massive minting of Spain's eight-real coin well into the 20th century, weighing 27.47 g, 0.9306 fine. Being of nearly identical weight to the German reichsthaler, British colonists in North America eventually called the Spanish coin the dollar, which became the model for the U.S. dollar and the Canadian dollar . The rise of German and Spanish dollars in 16th century European trade lessened

1876-547: The 15th century helped define Germany's ounce-sized Guldengroschen and its subdivisions. The Guldengroschen was a large silver coin of approximately 30 grams minted from the mine output of nations located southeast of modern-day Germany . The coin's name denotes its approximate equivalence to the Dutch guilder and French livre parisis of the 15th century, then worth around 1 ounce of silver or 2.6 grams gold. Though initially of varying weights and even facing competition from

1943-661: The 17th century. Friesland , Gelderland , Holland , Kampen , Overijssel , Utrecht , West Friesland , Zeeland , and Zwolle minted armored half bust rijksdaalders until the end of the 17th century. 17th century rijksdaalder was set to be equal to from 48 to 50 stuivers (the Dutch equivalent of shillings) and circulated along with silver florins (28 stuivers), daalders (30 stuivers), leeuwendaalders (36 to 42 stuivers; 27.68 g, 0.743 fine), silver ducats (48 stuivers; 28.06 g, 0.868 fine), and ducatons (60 stuivers; 32.46 g, 0.938 fine) silver ducats and rijksdaalders were almost of

2010-500: The 1870s, these coins were more often counted in non-thaler currency units like Dutch or Austrian guilders, French francs, Spanish reales, etc. By the mid-19th century the thaler (or reichsthaler, rigsdaler) was still the currency unit used in the North German Confederation and Scandinavia . By 1875 the thaler itself disappeared as currency unit in Europe upon adoption of the gold standard . Nonetheless, use of

2077-452: The 18th century in denominations of 1 ⁄ 8 and 1 duit, 1 ⁄ 4 , 1, 2 and 4 + 3 ⁄ 4 stuiver and 1 rijksdaalder. The currency derived from the Dutch rijksdaalder, although again the Dutch rijksdaalder was worth 50 stuiver and the Ceylon version 48 stuiver . After the British took over Ceylon and the rixdollar was the currency of Ceylon until 1828. The rixdollar

Reichsthaler - Misplaced Pages Continue

2144-699: The Cross of Burgundy) in 1567, and then the leeuwendaalder (the "lion thaler", depicting the Belgic Lion) in 1575, the latter of weight 27.68 g (427.2 grains) and 0.743 fineness. With the growing popularity of the German reichsthaler , however, the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands had to follow up with their own Dutch rijksdaalder in 1583, of weight 29.03 g (448 grains) and 0.885 fineness, and featuring an armored half bust of William

2211-711: The French écu or laubthaler of 26.7 g fine silver as its most widely used thaler, valued at 4 livres (francs) or 40 batzen of Bern. In 1798 this system was adopted by the Helvetic Confederation with the first Swiss franc equal to 1 ⁄ 4 th an écu. Eventual transition to this first new Swiss franc stalled in the 19th century while public preference shifted to the South German Kronenthaler of 25.71 g fine silver, valued at 3.9 francs or 39 batzen. In 1850 Switzerland established

2278-726: The Latin Monetary Union (among them France, Belgium, Switzerland), and the Greek 5-drachma coin (τάληρο, taliro). Thaler-sized coins minted to late-19th century standards would be minted until 1914 in Mexico and in most of Europe, until 1928 in Switzerland, and until 1934 in the United States. Henceforth thaler-sized silver coins would be minted as bullion or numismatic pieces, among them: Unrelated to specific coins,

2345-709: The Monetary Union and introduced the Norwegian krone in 1876. At the beginning of the 19th century the South German states valued the Conventionsthaler at 2.4 South German gulden , or 9.744 grams fine silver per gulden. Afterwards, however, they began to mint the Kronenthaler valued at 2.7 gulden - hence a reduced fine silver content for the gulden at 9.52 g. In 1837, the Prussian thaler

2412-469: The Reichsgulden currency. This remained an ideal or unimplemented system until the following changes were made in 1555: The Reichsthaler turned out to be the most successful coin resulting from the 16th century Reichsmünzordnungs . It was borne out of an ordinance in 1559 discontinuing the 72-kreuzer guldengroschen and proposing in its place a smaller 60-kreuzer gulden coin. Popular demand for

2479-480: The Silent . Friesland , Gelderland , Holland , Kampen , Overijssel , Utrecht , West Friesland , Zeeland , and Zwolle minted armored half bust rijksdaalders until the end of the 17th century. The pace of depreciation of the small-denomination stuiver quickened from the 1570s, with the leeuwendaalder rising from 32 to 40 stuivers by 1619, and the rijksdaalder from 42 to 50 stuivers. The Amsterdam Wisselbank

2546-454: The cities of Zürich (1512), Bern , Lucerne, Zug, Basel, Fribourg, Solothurn , Schaffhausen, St. Gallen and Geneva . The Reformed cities began to represent "city views" on the obverse of their thalers, as they did not have the option to represent either patron saint or ruling princes. The first city view thaler of Zürich was minted in 1651 (the so-called Vögelitaler ). By the 18th century, Bern and many Western Swiss cantons adopted

2613-478: The currency in Denmark and Norway until 1875, with the higher-valued Rigsdaler Specie (25.28 g fine silver) also coexisting with lower-valued Rigsdaler currency or courant ; see Danish rigsdaler & Norwegian rigsdaler . In Sweden, the Riksdaler Specie of 25.50 g fine silver also coexisted with other riksdaler in copper or lower-valued currency; see Swedish riksdaler . Thaler While

2680-549: The demand for French silver francs and testoons . In 1641 King Louis XIII therefore introduced a new Louis d'Argent equal to the Spanish dollar and worth three livres tournois , weighing 27.19 g and 0.917 fine. In 1726 France issued its own thaler coin, the silver écu of 6 livres with about 26.7 g fine silver; it would also find currency in Southern Germany and Switzerland as the laubthaler . Finally, in 1795

2747-483: The different North German states reconstructed their currency systems with a Thaler worth 24 gutegroschen or 1 1 ⁄ 2 gulden , but little is on record with regard to the mint systems until after 1667. They were thus on a de facto thaler currency unit with some uncertainty in its value versus the Reichsthaler specie . A currency trial done in 1665 indicated a lower prevailing (and unofficial) rate of 14 1 ⁄ 4 gulden or 9 1 ⁄ 2 thaler to

Reichsthaler - Misplaced Pages Continue

2814-439: The first half of the 17th century (e.g. Augsburg 1627, Nürnberg 1631). The type continues to be popular throughout the 18th century, culminating in detailed city panoramas rendered in one-point perspective . In the late 16th and 17th centuries, there was a fashion of oversized thaler coins, the so-called "multiple thalers", often called Löser in Germany. The first were minted in the Duchy of Brunswick-Luneburg , and indeed

2881-411: The first standard coin of the Holy Roman Empire was the Guldengroschen of 1524, its longest-lived coin was the Reichsthaler , which contained 1 ⁄ 9 Cologne Mark of fine silver (or 25.984 g), and which was issued in various versions from 1566 to 1875. From the 17th century a lesser-valued North German thaler currency unit emerged, which by the 19th century became par with

2948-490: The inflationary period following its defeat in the First World War. The Maria Theresa thaler , the most famous example of the Conventionsthaler minted from 1751, enjoyed a special role as trade currency and continued to be minted long after the death of Maria Theresa in 1780, with coins minted after her death always showing the year 1780. Francis Joseph of Austria declared it an official trade coinage in 1857 just before it lost legal tender status in Austria following issue of

3015-495: The introduction of the euro. The Royal Dutch Mint still mints a silver ducat "rijksdaalder" to this day. These are mintage figures for the 2 1 ⁄ 2 -guilder denomination until introduction of the euro in 2002. It excludes the silver ducat which is still minted as a numismatic product even after 2002. The Dutch rijksdaalder or the local versions of the 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 -guilder coin (or paper) were circulating in Dutch East India from 1602 until 1949. In this year

3082-563: The late 16th century, the word was variously spelled as German taler , toler , thaler , thaller ; Low German daler , dahler . In 18th to 19th-century German orthography, Thaler became standard, changed to Taler in the 1902 spelling reform . The name taler , thaler was soon used in compounds denoting various types of silver coins of thaler size, thus Reichstaler (1566), Silbertaler , Albertustaler (1612), Laubthaler (1726), Kronenthaler (1755), Ortsthaler , Schützentaler , Bankthaler , Speciethaler , etc. Units used in

3149-439: The lower-valued thaler currency unit is continued under North German thaler . Since the Holy Roman Empire was a loose federation of hundreds of feudal and princely rulers, Germany had a collection of currency systems loosely related to the Frankish Carolingian monetary system with one pound (later Gulden) equal to 20 shillings (later Groschen ), and a shilling equal to 12 pennies ( Pfennig ). Many feudal rulers claimed

3216-405: The majority were struck there. Some of these coins reached colossal size, as much as sixteen normal thalers, exceeding a full pound (over 450 g) of silver and being over 12 cm (5 in) in diameter. The name Löser most likely was derived from a large gold coin minted in Hamburg called the portugalöser , worth 10 ducats, which were based on Portuguese 10-ducat coins. Eventually the term

3283-439: The modern-day Swiss franc at par with the French franc , with 40 Swiss francs exchanged for 7 kronenthaler. The five-franc coin of 25.0 g, 90% fine silver became the coin with the closest value to the different historical thalers. The name thaler was introduced to Scandinavia as daler . The first Swedish daler coins were minted in 1534. The Norwegian speciedaler was minted from 1560. Later Scandinavian daler coins included

3350-433: The name of the thaler survives in various modern currency names, in the form dollar in twenty-three currencies used in countries including Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand and the United States of America, and also in the Samoan tālā and the Slovenian tolar (before adoption of the euro). Rijksdaalder The rijksdaalder ( Dutch pronunciation: [rɛiksˈdaːldər] ; "Imperial dollar")

3417-430: The name, dollar ( first Spanish and now mostly English), also survives as the name of several modern currencies. German taler is recorded from the 1530s, as an abbreviation of Joachimstaler . The silver mines at Joachimstal had opened in 1516, and the first such coins were minted there in 1518. The original spelling was taler (so Alberus 1540). German -taler means "of the valley" (cf. Neanderthaler ). By

SECTION 50

#1732786669722

3484-409: The original Reichsthaler specie of 9 1 ⁄ 4 to a Mark as their standard coin until 1875. The "city view" thalers of the 17th and 18th century have predecessors in stylised representations of cities (as three towers, or a city gate) on the obverse of thaler coins in the late 16th century, such as the Lüneburg thaler of Rudolf II made in 1584. More elaborate city views become current in

3551-570: The period was the crown . The Low German word was adopted in English as daler by 1550, modified to dollar by about 1600. English thaler was introduced in the first half of the 19th century to refer to the coins of the German states, as the word dollar was increasingly understood to refer to the United States dollar . The development of large silver coins is an innovation of the beginning Early Modern period . The largest medieval silver coins were known as groat (German Groschen ), from denarius grossus or "thick penny". These rarely exceeded

3618-420: The right to issue their own currency in their own domains, and often debased them in moments of stringency. Developments in the French livre currency system influenced the evolution of the German currencies. The French denier led to the pfennig in the 9th century. France's 1-shilling gros tournois then became the groschen in the 13th century. Finally, the ounce-sized French livre & Dutch guilder of

3685-476: The same size and quality. With the disappearance of the original armored half bust rijksdaalder design, silver ducats and later 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 guilders started to be called rijksdaalders. Unification of the Dutch monetary system in the beginning of the 18th century introduced guilder and set rijksdaalders and silver ducats at 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 guilders. Following decimalization (in 1816), 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 -guilder coins were no longer produced because

3752-404: 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 ("gold-groat", being of silver but equal in value to a Goldgulden). It 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

3819-409: The standard Reichsthaler specie coin; this thaler was worth 12 to a Mark after 1690, 13 1 ⁄ 3 to a Mark after 1754, and 14 to a Mark (the Prussian thaler ) by the 1840s. Furthermore, in 1754 a Conventionsthaler was developed by the Austrian Empire minted at 10 to a Mark of fine silver. While it was adopted by most German states, Scandinavia and a few North German states retained

3886-410: The thaler as currency continued outside Europe in the form of the U.S. dollar and the Canadian dollar , the Mexican peso and the various pesos of Spanish America , and the Ethiopian birr . The thaler (and its linguistic variants) would also survive as the informal name of coins identical to the historical coin like the German 3-mark coin, the Dutch 2 1 ⁄ 2 -gulden coin, the 5-franc coins of

3953-412: Was a Dutch coin first issued by the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands in the late 16th century during the Dutch Revolt which featured an armored half bust of William the Silent . It was the Dutch counterpart of the Reichsthaler of the Holy Roman Empire (weighing 29.232 grams of 0.889 fine silver) but weighed slightly less, at 29.03 g (448 grains) of 0.885 fine silver, reduced to 0.875 fine by

4020-422: Was adopted as the standard coin by most German states as well as in the Habsburg Empire . Vereinsthalers were issued until 1871 in Germany and 1867 in Austria. Within the new German Empire, silver vereinsthaler coins remained unlimited legal tender at a value of 3 German gold marks until 1908 when they were withdrawn and demonetized. Some old countermarked thalers circulated as emergency coinage in Germany during

4087-442: Was adopted by many South German states by the early 19th century. The term daalder continued to refer to 1 1 ⁄ 2 gulden in currency even after the discontinuation of the 1 1 ⁄ 2 gulden or 30 stuiver piece in the 19th century. The rijksdaalder was also known as the silver ducat, which is still minted for collectors in the Netherlands today. The discovery of massive silver supplies in Spanish America in

SECTION 60

#1732786669722

4154-413: Was also subsequently named (confusingly) as the rijksdaalder . In 1618 the full-weight Reichsthaler Specie coin of 25.984 g fine silver was the bank money of the Hamburger Bank worth 3 Hamburg mark banco. Its weight was redefined after 1770 at 9 1 ⁄ 4 to a Cologne Mark of fine silver, or 25.28 g, and it was continued to be used until German reunification in 1871. The Rigsdaler served as

4221-422: Was applied to numerous similar coins worth more than a single thaler. These coins are very rare and highly sought after by collectors. As few of them were circulated in any real sense, they are often well-preserved. The Spanish Netherlands and the independent Dutch Republic has had a history of minting large silver coins separately from the rest of the Holy Roman Empire . It issued the kruisdaalder (depicting

4288-471: Was fixed at 1 3 ⁄ 4 South German gulden - hence 9.545 g fine silver per gulden. The North German thaler , valued at 3 ⁄ 4 a Conventionsthaler or 13 1 ⁄ 3 to a Cologne Mark fine silver at the start of the 19th century, was revalued in the 1840s at par with the Prussian thaler , at 14 to a Mark, though with varying subdivisions. In 1857, the Vereinsthaler worth 1 North German thaler or 1 3 ⁄ 4 South German gulden

4355-453: Was founded by the Dutch in the early 17th century. "The Lion Daalder holds an important place in American history as America’s first dollar and the root of the word from where the current currency, the US Dollar, found its name." [1] By the 18th century the Spanish-controlled Dutch territories eventually became the Austrian Netherlands . In 1754 it issued the Kronenthaler of weight 29.45 g and 0.873 fineness, or 25.71 g fine silver. This coin

4422-416: Was then founded in 1608 to establish a stable bank currency with the rijksdaalder of 29.03 g, 0.875 fine (or 25.4 g fine silver) fixed at 50 stuivers or 2 1 ⁄ 2 gulden . The bank's success helped the Dutch Republic become Europe's financial center in the 17th century and maintain the reichsthaler as its banking currency unit despite Germany's descent into the chaos of the Thirty Years' War . As

4489-412: Was then replaced by the British pound at a rate of 1 rixdollar = 1 shilling 6 pence (£1 = 13 + 1 ⁄ 3 rixdollars). In Suriname the Surinamese Rijksdaalder circulated until 2004, when the Surinamese guilder was replaced by the Surinamese dollar . In the former Netherlands Antilles the rijksdaalder circulated until 2011. In that year the Netherlands Antillean guilder will be replaced by

#721278