Editing Thaler (section)

==Predecessors==
[[File:Münze Erzherzog Sigismund.jpg|thumb|The 1486 [[Guldengroschen]] (obverse)]]

The development of large silver coins is an innovation of the beginning [[Early Modern period]].
The largest medieval silver coins were known as [[Groat (coin)|groat]] (German ''Groschen''), from ''denarius grossus'' or "thick penny". These rarely exceeded a weight of 6 grams.

Even these coins were increasingly debased due to the [[Great Bullion Famine]] of the 15th century which occurred for several reasons including continued warfare and the centuries-long loss of silver and gold in indirect one-sided trades importing [[spice]]s, [[porcelain]], [[silk]] and other fine cloths and exotic goods from India, Indonesia and the Far East. This continual debasement had reached a point that silver content in ''Groschen''-type coins had dropped, in some cases, to less than five percent, making the coins of much less individual value than they had in the beginning.

This trend was inverted with the discovery of new and substantial silver deposits in Europe beginning in about the 1470s. Italy began the first tentative steps toward a large silver coinage with the introduction in 1472 of the [[Venetian lira]] [[Nicolò Tron|tron]] in excess of 6 grams, a substantial increase over the 4-gram [[gros tournois]] of France. However, it was only in 1484 that [[Sigismund of Austria|Archduke Sigismund]] of [[German Tyrol|Tirol]] issued the first truly revolutionary silver coin, the ''half Guldengroschen'' of roughly 15 g. This was a very rare coin, almost a trial piece, but it did circulate so successfully that demand could not be met.

Finally, with the silver deposits—being mined at [[Schwaz]]—to work with and his mint at [[Hall in Tirol|Hall]], Sigismund issued, in 1486, large numbers of the first true thaler-sized coin, the ''[[Guldengroschen]]'' ("gold-groat", being of silver but equal in value to a Goldgulden). It was an instant and unqualified success. Soon it was being copied widely by many states who had the necessary silver. The engravers, no less affected by the [[Renaissance]] than were other artists, began creating intricate and elaborate designs featuring the heraldic arms and standards of the minting state as well as brutally realistic, sometimes unflattering, depictions of the ruler (monarch).