The Kronenthaler was a silver coin first issued in 1755 in the

Austrian Netherlands The Austrian Netherlands was the territory of the Burgundian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire between 1714 and 1797. The period began with the acquisition by the Austrian Habsburg monarchy of the former Spanish Netherlands under the Treaty of Ras ...

(see Austrian Netherlands Kronenthaler) and which became a popular trade coin in early 19th century Europe. Most examples show the bust of the Austrian ruler on the obverse and three or four crowns on the reverse, hence the name which means "crown thaler" (also ''Brabanter'' and ''crocione'' (Italian).

History

The kronenthaler was initially issued with the same weight as the French ''

écu The term ''écu'' () may refer to one of several France, French coins. The first ''écu'' was a gold coin (the ''écu d'or'') minted during the reign of Louis IX of France, in 1266. The value of the ''écu'' varied considerably over time, and si ...

'' at around 29.5 grams, but with a value of 54 ''sols (

stuiver The stuiver was a coin used in the Netherlands, worth of a guilder (16 ''penning'' or 8 '' duit'', later 5 cents). It was also minted on the Lower Rhine region and the Dutch colonies. The word can still refer to the 5 euro cent coin, which ...

s'') or 2.7 '' gulden'' while the écu had a value of 56 sols (stuivers) or 2.8 gulden. French écus with 27 grams of fine silver can be theoretically melted and reissued into kronenthalers with 27x = 26 grams of fine silver, matching the silver content of the

Reichsthaler The ''Reichsthaler'' (; 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 ...

of the

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

convention. A deliberate minting of below-standard French écus, however, also resulted in a decreased silver content for the Kronenthaler. The French annexation of the

Southern Netherlands The Southern Netherlands, also called the Catholic Netherlands, were the parts of the Low Countries belonging to the Holy Roman Empire which were at first largely controlled by Habsburg Spain (Spanish Netherlands, 1556–1714) and later by the ...

in 1794 resulted in the conversion of Kronenthalers and 6-livre écus into new

French franc The franc (; , ; currency sign, sign: F or Fr), also commonly distinguished as the (FF), was a currency of France. Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amoun ...

s at the rate of 1 franc = 1.0125 ''

livre tournois The (; ; abbreviation: ₶ or £) was one of numerous currencies used in France in the Middle Ages, medieval France, and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in early modern France. The 1262 monetary reform esta ...

'' = 0.16875 ''écu'' = 4.5 grams fine silver. This implies a fine silver equivalence of 26 grams per écu, 25 grams per kronenthaler, and 9 or 9.52 grams per gulden. This reduced-value Belgian gulden doomed the introduction of the 9.61-gram

Dutch Gulden The guilder (, ) or florin was the currency of the Netherlands from 1434 until 2002, when it was replaced by the euro. The Dutch name was a Middle Dutch adjective meaning 'golden', and reflects the fact that, when first introduced in 1434, its ...

as standard currency of the

United Kingdom of the Netherlands The United Kingdom of the Netherlands is the unofficial name given to the Kingdom of the Netherlands as it existed from 1815 to 1839. The United Netherlands was created in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars through the fusion of territories t ...

in 1815 as the conversion of 2.7-guilder Kronenthalers into 2.7 Dutch guilders was guaranteed. At about the same time from 1807-1837, several German states (e.g.,

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in southern Germany. In earlier times it was considered to be on both sides of the Upper Rhine, but since the Napoleonic Wars, it has been considered only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Ba ...

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Province of Hohenzollern, Hohenzollern, two other histo ...

) engaged in a competitive depreciation of the

South German gulden The South German Gulden was the currency of the states of Southern 18th century history of Germany, Germany between 1754 and 1873. These states included Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg, Free City of Frankfurt, Frankfurt and Hohenzollern. It was di ...

by choosing to mint 2.7-gulden Kronenthalers (with 9.52 grams of silver per gulden) rather than the 2.4-gulden

Conventionsthaler The or ("Convention "), was a standard silver coin in the Austrian Empire and the southern German states of the Holy Roman Empire from the mid-18th to early 19th-centuries. Its most famous example is the Maria Theresa thaler which is still min ...

(with 9.74 grams of silver per gulden). The kronenthaler was minted prolifically in the 19th century precisely because it yielded the issuer the maximum amount of guilders for a fixed quantity of coined silver. The situation was resolved in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

by reducing the fine silver content of the

Dutch gulden The guilder (, ) or florin was the currency of the Netherlands from 1434 until 2002, when it was replaced by the euro. The Dutch name was a Middle Dutch adjective meaning 'golden', and reflects the fact that, when first introduced in 1434, its ...

to 9.45 grams, and in the Southern German states by adopting a new parity of 1 gulden =

Prussian thaler The Prussian Thaler (sometimes Prussian Reichsthaler) was the currency of Prussia until 1857. In 1750, Johann Philipp Graumann implemented the ''Graumannscher Fuß'' with 14 thalers issued to a Cologne Mark of fine silver, or 16.704 g per thaler ...

Cologne mark The Cologne mark is an obsolete unit of weight (or mass) equivalent to 233.856 grams (about 3,609 grains). The Cologne mark was in use from the 11th century onward. It came to be used as the base unit for a number of currency standards, including ...

=9.545 grams of silver as part of the German Customs Union and currency union of 1837. The kronenthaler was thus retired in favor of the new Dutch and South German guilders. The kronenthaler was also the most favorable medium of exchange in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

prior to the adoption of the

Swiss franc The Swiss franc, or simply the franc, is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It is also legal tender in the Italian exclave of Campione d'Italia which is surrounded by Swiss territory. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) iss ...

in 1850. French écus accepted at 4 Swiss ''livres'' imply a kronenthaler valuation of 4x livres = 3.86 livres. Instead the ''écu de Brabant'' is accepted at a higher rate of 3.9 livres. The rate of conversion to the new Swiss currency was 5 Swiss francs per kronenthaler.

References

{{Crown Modern obsolete currencies Currencies of Europe Crown (currency) Thaler