Two-hundred fifty-nine years ago, a large silver thaler was
minted in Austria. Its reverse displayed Hapsburg arms of Austro-Hungary. The
obverse showed an effigy of the Empress Maria Theresia Walburga Amalia
Christina, Sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Mantua, Milan,
Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands and Parma, Grand Duchess of
Tuscany, Duchess of Lorraine, German Queen and Holy Roman Empress – aka Maria
Theresa.
Despite the empress dying in 1780 and the coin being
demonetized in Austria on Oct. 31 1858, different versions of this thaler have
been struck more or less continually ever since by mints inside and outside Austria.
More than 800 million have been produced, lending support to the claim that
this thaler is the most popular silver coin ever minted.
These massive mintages were prompted in large part by the
coin becoming a widespread international currency, aided by Emperor Francis
Joseph granting it official trade status in 1857. Today it is universally known
as the Maria Theresa Thaler (MTT), except in the Middle East where it is
supposedly referred to as The Fat Lady, although Austria’s National Bank
considers this a base slur put about by the perfidious English.
In numerous countries outside the Hapsburg Empire, the MTT
proved so popular that it achieved legal tender status. It was one of the early
coins that circulated in British North America and, subsequently, the United
States. The coin purchased slaves for the Southern cotton fields, while the
North used it to buy Egyptian cotton during the Civil War. Along with Spain’s 8
reales, it had helped determine the choice of the dollar as the principal
currency unit of the newly independent U.S.A.
Each MTT is 39.5 mm in diameter, 2.5 mm thick and contains
28.0668 grams of .833 fine silver, corresponding to 23.3890 grams or 0.752 troy
ounces of pure silver. The coin’s edge is raised to frustrate clipping.
The MTT most readers will be familiar with carries an
obverse legend reading, “M. THERESIA D. G. R. IMP. HU. BO. REG.” an
abbreviation of “Maria Theresia, Dei Gratia Romanorum Imperatrix, Hungariae
Bohemiaeque Regina” or, in plain English, “Maria Theresa, by the grace of God
Empress of the Romans, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia.” The reverse shows:
“ARCHID. AVST. DUX BURG. CO. TYR. 1780 X” i.e., “Archidux Austriae, Dux
Burgundiae, Comes Tyrolis. 1780 X” that translates as “Archduchess of Austria,
Duchess of Burgundy, Countess of Tyrol. 1780” The “X” is a saltire that was
added after 1750 and symbolizes Maria Theresa’s reign over the Austrian
Netherlands. It can be used to identify the mint at which a particular coin was
struck.
The rim of the coin shows Maria Theresa’s motto, “IUSTITIA
ET CLEMENTIA” or “Justice and Clemency,” along with arabesques that provide
further mint identifiers.
Hapsburg Strikings
The first MTT was struck in 1741. Like many coins of
long-lived monarchs, different effigies would grace the obverse of the coin
over the next 40 years. On the first coins is a somewhat younger and
slimmed-down empress than is seen on the common restrikes that abound today
and, of course, in her early years she lacks her widow’s veil. Other changes
occurred in the design during Maria Theresa’s lifetime. Items like the royal
brooch and the shield vary throughout the coin’s history. The shield may be a
single coat of arms of the Hapsburg province where the coin was minted, or
divided into four quadrants showing different provincial escutcheons, or it may
be a composite of multitudinous arms such as the Hapsburgs delighted in.
Up until Maria Theresa’s death on Nov. 29, 1780, Austrian
mints and those of adjacent Hapsburg-ruled states would produce no less than 43
different silver MTT designs. The primary mints involved were Vienna, Graz,
Hall, Hungary, Kremnitz, Prague, Gunzberg/Burgau and Milan, identified by various
distinct design differences.
On Sept. 21, 1753, Empress Maria Theresia signed a coinage
convention with the Prince Elector of Bavaria. This treaty defined the silver
content of coins in their respective nations and fixed the gulden and thaler
ratio at 2:1. Coins meeting these standards became known as convention thalers
and provide the basis of the restruck MTTs we see today. Convention coins
remained legal tender until 1858.
After the empress died in 1780, her son, the Emperor Joseph
II, allowed the Bavarian mint at Gunzberg, then part of the Hapsburg Empire, to
continue striking MTTs, citing the precedence of an imperial edict of Sept. 17,
1857, that had granted a patent allowing the restriking of the MTT for trade
purposes. The consistency of the MTT in both weight and fineness had made it
highly sought-after outside the empire, particularly in the Eastern
Mediterranean, aka The Levant.
For its restrikes, the Gunzberg Mint used the 1780-dated
SF/•X Large Mature Bust dies they had employed in the last year of Maria
Theresa’s life. All subsequent restrikes, including those of today, have
employed this same 1780-dated design but with some minor changes. All are
grouped in the Standard Catalog of World Coins under KM-T1.
Trading-Up
The history of the MTT as a trade coin has been examined by
numerous authors. The stories differ in the detail, but the basic facts are
summarized on several excellent Web sites. An excellent academic survey comes
from Adrian Tschoegl of the University of Pennsylvania in The Eastern Economic
Journal 27 (2001) 443-462: “Maria Theresa’s Thaler: a case of international
money.”
The widespread use of the coin beyond the Hapsburg Empire
was aided and abetted by Count Johan von Fries, banker to the Hapsburgs. The
Austrian royals owed him a number of favors. One was paid by granting the count
a monopoly for delivery of all thalers to the Ottoman Empire, not just those
minted for von Fries, but those of other merchants.
The count shipped the coins through Trieste and by the 1770-1780s,
they had permeated throughout the Middle East and were already being traded in
India and China. Other silver coins circulated in the Mediterranean, but
gradually the MTT achieved dominance to become known as the Levant or Levantine
thaler or dollar.
By 1769, MTTs were supplanting colonial Spanish 8 reales in
Ethiopia, where they were in common use for the purchase of slaves. In the
interior, they were found more convenient in trade than salt or cloth.
MTTs from Gunzberg proved popular with French importers. In
the 1780s, exportation of French coins was forbidden. MTTs filled the gap and
were used to purchase silk, coffee and other exotica.
The demand was sufficient that between 1780 and 1784 at
least eight Hapsburg mints were producing restrikes using the 1780-dated SF/•X
design, including Vienna, Gunzberg, Karlsburg, Kremnitz, Hall and Milan. In
1783, a decree ordered all Hapsburg mints to strike this coin for anyone
providing the necessary silver.
It can be noted that the number of coins produced in these
first restrikes was relatively small and the strikings occupied a relatively
short time frame. As such, many collectors and catalogers do not regard these
coins as conventional restrikes. All are grouped under KM-23 in the Standard
Catalog despite their design differences that allow them to be separated one
from the other and from later KM-T1 restrikes.
For the remainder of the 19th century, Austro-Hungarian
mints continued to strike MTTs to all-comers from supplied silver - for a fee.
All Change in Europe
Then in 1805 came Napoleon. Among other things, he abolished
the Holy Roman Empire. The Gunzberg Mint closed. For a while the production of
MTTs slowed, but by 1812 it had begun to recover, aided in 1815 by the return
of Milan to Austria under the Treaty of Vienna and, subsequently, Venice in
1817.
But in 1860 the Hapsburgs lost Milan forever. The new
Italian State ceased production of MTTs in all facilities under its control.
These included Venice when the Hapsburg’s relinquished it in 1866. Vienna now
became the sole MTT source for the Hapsburgs. And it was a right little earner.
Demand was up and showing no signs of abating.
For starters, Britain purchased MTTs from Vienna in 1868 to
finance Napier’s expedition into Abyssinia. The coin proved popular in Greece.
There it would circulate through until 1882. On the home front, the MTT may
have lost its legal tender status in Austria-proper in 1858, but within the
Empire it continued as legal tender as in Bosnia-Herzegovina where it continued
in use through until about 1892.
The opening of the Suez Canal helped move MTTs through to
countries bordering the Red Sea. By the last two decades of the 19th century,
MTTs were becoming commonplace throughout Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia,
where they were used for dowries and accepted for tax payments. The demand for
the coin caused the Italians to consider minting MTTs using dies still held by
the Milan and Venice Mints. They abandoned the idea when Austria expressed
displeasure. Instead, Vienna struck more than 23 million MTTs in 1892-1897 to
finance Italy’s colonial ambitions in North Africa.
Coins for Africa
The coins flowed down into Nigeria, Uganda and Zanzibar,
where small change for the coins was made – as elsewhere in Africa – using
salt, cloth, cowries, bracelets, beads and cartridges. Adrian Tschoegl cites
the price of a teenage male slave in Sudan in 1870s as 15-20 MTTs. In the
1880s, the British relief column to Khartoum brought MTTs with them while in
Lagos. The local population preferred MTTs to British Imperial currency.
The arrival of MTTs in the region was met with little
enthusiasm by both local and colonial authorities. Most tried to oust it but
with limited success. The plebs just loved the coin. In the Ottoman Empire, the
government tried to circulate a locally-minted silver 20 piastres, but the
populace voted for the Fat Lady.
When German East Africa was established in 1888, it banned
importation of MTTs but found it could not stop their circulation as proved the
case in Togo and Cameroon. Italy’s attempt to replace the MTT in Eritrea and
Abyssinia with its own coinage was a dismal failure.
Nor were the French keen on the MTT. They used them of
necessity in Central Africa but tried to eliminate them in West Africa. The
British were more realistic and happily accepted them in Nigeria up until 1901
before finally banning them in 1902.
Far more pragmatic was the National Bank of Egypt. When it
established the Bank of Abyssinia in Ethiopia, the bank notes issued from 1914
to 1933 (P1-P11) were denominated in thalers. If anything, this aided their
ready acceptance.
In short, up until WWII the MTT was the most widely accepted
coin throughout The Levant and North Africa. It circulated in at least Albania,
Algeria, Bahrain, Borneo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, China,
Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Java, Kuwait, Lebanon,
Libya, Malta, Mauritius, Moldovia, Morocco, Niger, Palestine, Pemba, Saudi
Arabia, Serbia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tanganyika, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey,
Uganda, UAE, Walachia, Yemen and Zanzibar.
Some countries counterstamped the coin to validate its
acceptance as local coinage. Counterstamped thalers are recorded from Azores,
Brazil, China, Java, Kuwait, Maderia, Mozambique, Pemba and the USA.
And, as a matter of course, counterfeit MTTs became commonplace.
Vienna Loses its Monopoly
The Great War saw the final collapse of the Hapsburg Empire.
No MTTs were struck between 1915 and 1920. In 1919, the Vienna Mint became the
sole mint for the new Austrian Republic. However, the legal-standing of the MTT
had been overlooked in the new currency laws, and it was only after some
international argy-bargy that the monopoly of Austria to the coin was
universally accepted.
In the aftermath of WWI, silver fluctuated wildly in price.
When it eventually settled, Vienna struck tens of millions of MTTs during the
1920s. But then the Great Depression arrived and, as demand for silver fell
away in the 1930s, fewer were produced.
Over in Ethiopia, Haile Sellasie had taken up the reins. He
made a determined effort to rid the country of the MTT but too little avail.
Then Italy invaded and as the fascist leaders set about systematically looting
the place, MTTs flowed across the Mediterranean to finance their operations.
Mussolini lent heavily on Austria to allow Italy to mint its
own MTTs. He cited the precedent of earlier mintings in Milan and Venice.
Vienna bowed to his demands, possibly helped by Mussolini’s close friendship
with Austria’s Chancellor Dollfuss. In 1935, the mint not only handed over dies
to the Royal Italian Mint, but also agreed to restrict their own mintings to no
more than 10,000 MTTs a year and to decline all external orders.
In the event, Rome produced 19.5 million MTTs for Italian
consumption but refused to mint MTTs for other parties. This led to those
merchant banks wanting to do business in the Middle East and Africa to approach
non-Italian mints to produce the coins.
Alien Mintings Galore
Britain’s Royal Mint began production in 1936 at the request
of Johnson Matthey. It had sought a legal opinion before doing so. The
legal-eagles concluded that, as the coin bore the portrait of a 200-year-old
monarch and as the denomination had long been superseded, MTTs were simply
metallic discs and not money. Further, it was held that Austria had abrogated
any claim to a monopoly on MTTS when they turned dies over to Italy.
Monnaie de Paris had beaten the Royal Mint to the draw and
made its own dies in 1935. However, they commenced production only in 1937 when
the Royal Belgian Mint began striking MTTs for bankers Samuel Montagu.
Many of these MTTs were used to buy lira in Ethiopia where
the Italians had fixed the official thaler-lira exchange rate at less than that
prevailing on the black market. The banks happily sold their newly purchased
lira back to Italy at a handsome profit.
Although Britain stopped minting MTTs officially in 1937,
following an agreement with Italy, the Royal Mint certainly struck some
5,000,000 coins in 1938. The Royal Dutch Mint at Utrecht commenced striking the
same year, but with the outbreak of WWII, its entire mintage was melted but for
60 coins.
By 1938, Hitler had seized Austria and the Vienna Mint would
devote the war years to producing reichsmarks and very little else.
Reclaiming Austria's Birthright
With the outbreak of the war, Britain’s Royal Mint resumed
minting MTTs starting in 1940. They also shipped dies to India, where between
1940 and 1942 the Bombay Mint struck nearly 19,000,000 MTTs that were primarily
spent driving the Italians out of their African colonies. The coins proved
acceptable to the locals throughout North Africa and the Middle East,
particularly in the face of the welter of war-time paper currency being spewed
out by Allied and Axis presses alike. Even the U.S. Office of Strategic
Services is reported to have gotten in on the act and produced acceptable casts
of MTTs, which were used in Java – among other places.
With the end of the war, the MTT continued to be recognized
as legal tender in Ethiopia until the introduction of the Ethiopian dollar,
when as many MTTs as possible were rounded up, shipped to the U.S. and melted
to be turned into further Ethiopian dollars.
Production outside Austria continued after the war.
Birmingham produced 3,500,000 for a private bank. The Royal Mint struck
5,400,000 from 1949 to 1961, Brussels 1,000,000 from 1954 to 1957, and Paris
5,500,000 in 1946 with a further 2,000,000 in 1957. Most ended up in Aden,
where they were on-sold.
Austria restarted minting in 1946 but more or less stuck to
its pre-war agreement with Italy of striking just 10,000 a year until that
contract expired in 1960. They then asked the Royal Mint to cease production,
which it did in 1961. Birmingham, Brussels and Paris had stopped in 1957.
Maria Theresa Rules
With its monopoly restored, the Austrian Mint returned to
full production. It was worth it. The MTT was still in demand in the Middle
East. Post-WWII, many Middle Eastern countries continued to operate with a mix
of currencies that included dinars, rupees, gold sovereigns and good old MTTs,
much as they had throughout the earlier 20th century. Bahrain introduced a
national currency only in 1960. Muscat and Oman waited until the 1970s.
But, despite the new national coinages, old habits died
hard. Folk clung to the familiar, and not only in the Middle East. Out in the
North African countryside, the MTT retained its approval rating long after
WWII, despite official efforts to suppress it. In his survey, Adrian Tschoegl
observes that as late as 1982 the annual wage of a child shepherd in Ethiopia
was set at 12 MTT.
He also points out that in many cultures the MTT enjoyed
roles other than a currency, all of which helped perpetuate its use. In
Ethiopia it acted as a gold weight, elsewhere in Africa it was important in
matrimonial negotiations, and in the Middle East it served as an amulet to ward
off the evil eye. And, of course, it was an invaluable source of high grade
silver for jewelers. Its intrinsic value ruled all – particularly those
Johnny-come-lately base metal and paper currencies.
Today the Austrian government no longer authorizes any other
nation to mint MTTs. All restrikes are now produced in Vienna. Their production
is largely limited to MTTs produced for collectors and jewelers. Come the turn
of the millennium, the mint was striking about 10,000 a year. Clearly,
Mussolini would seem to have had it right.
