Of all the coins minted over the centuries, the Maria Theresa taler must count as one of the stars. Minted in Austria in 1765 and 1780, the taler carried the portrait of Maria Theresa, widow of Emperor Franz I and weighed 28.07 g, with a silver content of 23.3 g. Within a short time, the Maria Theresa taler became a prime means of payment in Arabia. Believed to have magical powers, it was also worn as a talisman. Both as an ornament and a means of payment, it came to rival even the cowry.
In many parts of the world , the empress' profile also adorned millions of false talers all stamped with the same year of issue, 1780. The coin was produced for a number of Arab countries until 1924 and for some parts of Africa up to the end of 1935. The last country to take the Maria Theresa taler out of circulation was Djibouti, in 1943.
This coin became accepted as a means of payment over wide regions and was used as an international trading currency without reference to governments and without official agreements. Bringing the euro successfully into the world is proving a far more complicated task.
Source:
René Sedillot: Muscheln, Münzen und Papier
|
