Editing Thaler (section)

==19th-century Germany==
{{See also|South German gulden|Kronenthaler|Vereinsthaler}}
[[File:Alte Rückseite - Kleiner Adler - Großes Wappen.jpg|thumb|150px|German 5 Mark coin (1888)]]

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]] was fixed at 1{{frac|3|4}} [[South German gulden]] - hence 9.545 g fine silver per gulden.

The [[North German thaler]], valued at {{frac|3|4}} a [[Conventionsthaler]] or 13{{frac|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{{frac|3|4}} [[South German gulden]] was adopted as the standard coin by most German states as well as in the [[Habsburg monarchy|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vereinsthaler coins remained unlimited legal tender at a value of 3 [[German gold mark]]s until 1908 when they were withdrawn and demonetized. Some old countermarked thalers circulated as emergency coinage in Germany during 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 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]].