THE COINS OF MARIA THERESA

Maria Theresa at ages 11 and 60

On 13 May 1717, Maria Theresa was born as the second child of Emperor Charles VI. Her older brother had died shortly after his birth and there would not be any more sons. Therefore it was soon evident that she would be the next ruler of the Habsburg hereditary lands. ... Maria Theresa, the 23-year-old archduchess of Austria, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, was forced to simultaneously fight against Prussia and Bavaria, Spain, Saxony, France, Sweden, Naples, the Electoral Palatinate and the Electorate of Cologne in order to maintain her country's integrity.

Maria Theresa. Gold medal by A. Widemann

The mints of Maria Theresa
When Maria Theresa assumed office, she took over the denominations as well as the weight and fineness of her father’s coin. Thus the most important coin was the taler, which – as she confirmed in the coin instruction of 17 July 1741 - should be issued at 28.82 g of 875 silver. Intended for minting were talers, half-talers (= gulden), quarter-talers, 15 kreuzers, 6 kreuzers, groschen, kreuzers, half-kreuzers and pfennige (= vierer).

After the Austrian War of Succession and the first two Silesian Wars, Austria's finances were ruined. Maria Theresa thus used an effective method to regenerate. In the 18th century, this method was to lower the silver content of the denominations and to mint more fractions, whose intrinsic value was far below its face value anyway.

Maria Theresa. Ducat 1765, Kremnica.

Maria Theresa actually issued three edicts in just four years: In 1747, she demanded that the minting of talers, half-talers and quarter-talers be limited in favour of fractions, in 1748 and 1750 she reduced the metal content of all coinages. In order for the officials to be able to recognise the "bad" coins, a saltire was put after the year. Of course this "secret mark" did not stay secret for all too long...

After Maria Theresa's death, 3,943 gulden and 44 kreuzers were found lying around in Maria Theresa's room, which could be interpreted as a sign that in 1780, when the empress died, the money problems were gone. She left a well-organised empire to her son Joseph II, which he then reformed into a modern state. This state, despite Napoleon, would grow into the multinational empire of the 19th century.

Maria Theresa. Half-convention taler 1765

To read the complete article, see:
The coins of Maria Theresa (https://www.kuenker.de/en/information/presseinformationen/aktuelle-mitteilungen/148)

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