Guldengroschen

The ''Guldengroschen'' or ''Guldiner'' was a large silver coin originally minted in Tirol in 1486, but which was introduced into the Duchy of Saxony in 1500.

The name "''Guldengroschen''" came from the fact that it has an equivalent denomination value in silver relative to that of the '' goldgulden'' (60 '' kreuzer''). In the latter years of the 1470s and early years of the 1480s Sigismund of Austria issued decrees that reformed the poor state of his region's coinage by improving the silver fineness back to a level not seen in centuries (.937 pure) and created denominations larger than the ubiquitous, but fairly low valued '' Groschen'' of 4 to 6 '' Kreuzer'' that were in use.

In 1484, small numbers of "half ''guldengroschens''" valued at 30 kreuzer were issued. This was a revolutionary leap in denomination from the smaller pieces, and surpassed even the large '' testones'' of Italy which were the highest weight coins in use. Finally, in 1486 the full sized ''guldengroschen'' of 60 ''kreuzers'' was put into circulation and it was soon nicknamed "''Guldiner''". For a long time thereafter such coins were also called "unciales" because their actual silver weight was very nearly one ounce. As large quantities of silver became available other states began issuing ''guldiners'' of their own. Bern, in modern-day Switzerland was one of the earliest to follow the County of Tyrol by issuing its ''guldiners'' in 1493. In 1500, Saxony's mint at Annaberg took minting of ''guldiners'' to new heights and the economies of central Europe welcomed these large new coins.

The original Tyrolean ''guldiner'' was designed so that eight coins minted would weigh in pure silver at one Tyrolean ''Mark''. This was fine for the Tyrol, but much of Europe was accustomed to measuring by the more widely used Cologne mark. The penultimate development of the ''guldiner'' occurred in 1518 when the Joachimsthal mint in Jagiellon-controlled Bohemia slightly altered the weight of the coin from 31.93 g down to 29.23 g.Miller (2020), p. 91. This made it possible to mint nine ''guldiners'' to have the silver weight equivalent of one Cologne Mark, rather than the eight in Tirol. This new coin was known as the Joachimsthaler (Joachimsthal ''guldiner''), but like the guldengroschen being contracted to guldiner, the ''Joachimsthaler'' became known simply as the ''thaler''. This new coin was an instant success and was the great grandfather of many other similar weight coins like the daalder, dollar, tolar, tallero, etc.

The 1524 '' Reichsmünzordnung'' defined a standard ''Guldengroschen'' for the Holy Roman Empire, at th Cologne Mark of silver, 15/16 fine - hence, 27.405 g fine silver.Miller (2020), p. 79. It was valued at 60 '' kreuzer'' in 1524 and 72 ''kreuzer'' after 1555. This imperial ''Guldengroschen'' ended in 1566 with the issuance of the ''Reichsthaler'', which contained less silver (25.984 g), but was also valued at 72 ''kreuzer''.

Guldengroschen represented in other coins

Guldengroschen itself, has been the main motive for many collectors coins and medals. One of the most recent is the Austrian 700 Years City of Hall in Tyrol commemorative coin, minted on January 29, 2003. The reverse side of the coin shows the Guldiner silver coin. However, the design is negative, representing a coin die, as a reference to Hall’s history as a significant centre for minting coins.

References

Literature

* Miller, Manfred (2020). ''Münzverwaltungslehre'' at academia.edu. Retrieved 30 May 2022.

{{Gulden
Numismatics
Groschen