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The Kronenthaler was a silver coin first issued in 1755 in the
Austrian Netherlands
The Austrian Netherlands nl, Oostenrijkse Nederlanden; french: Pays-Bas Autrichiens; german: Österreichische Niederlande; la, Belgium Austriacum. was the territory of the Burgundian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire between 1714 and 1797. The pe ...
(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'' at around 29.5 grams, but with a value of 54 ''sols (stuiver
The stuiver was a coin used in the Netherlands, worth Dutch Guilders ( 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 German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
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 A ...
in 1794 resulted in the conversion of Kronenthalers and 6-livre écus into new French franc
The franc (, ; 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 amount of money. It w ...
s at the rate of 1 franc = 1.0125 ''livre tournois
The (; ; abbreviation: ₶.) was one of numerous currencies used in medieval France, and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in Early Modern France.
The 1262 monetary reform established the as 20 , or 80.88 g ...
'' = 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 ( nl, gulden, ) or florin was the currency of the Netherlands from the 15th century until 2002, when it was replaced by the euro.
The Dutch name ''gulden'' was a Middle Dutch adjective meaning "golden", and reflects the fact that, wh ...
as standard currency of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands
The United Kingdom of the Netherlands ( nl, Verenigd Koninkrijk der Nederlanden; french: Royaume uni des Pays-Bas) is the unofficial name given to the Kingdom of the Netherlands as it existed between 1815 and 1839. The United Netherlands was cr ...
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 (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...
, Baden
Baden (; ) is a historical territory in South Germany, in earlier times on both sides of the Upper Rhine but since the Napoleonic Wars only East of the Rhine.
History
The margraves of Baden originated from the House of Zähringen. Baden i ...
, 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 Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Württ ...
) engaged in a competitive depreciation of the South German gulden
The South German Gulden was the currency of the states of southern Germany between 1754 and 1873. These states included Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg, Frankfurt and Hohenzollern. It was divided into 60 kreuzer, with each kreuzer worth 4 pfennig ...
by choosing to mint 2.7-gulden Kronenthalers (with 9.52 grams of silver per gulden) rather than the 2.4-gulden Conventionsthaler
The ''Conventionstaler'' or ''Konventionstaler'' ("Convention ''thaler''"), 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 exam ...
(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
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
by reducing the fine silver content of the Dutch gulden
The guilder ( nl, gulden, ) or florin was the currency of the Netherlands from the 15th century until 2002, when it was replaced by the euro.
The Dutch name ''gulden'' was a Middle Dutch adjective meaning "golden", and reflects the fact that, wh ...
to 9.45 grams, and in the Southern German states by adopting a new parity of 1 gulden = Prussian thaler = Cologne mark =9.545 grams of silver as part of the German Customs Union
The (), or German Customs Union, was a coalition of German states formed to manage tariffs and economic policies within their territories. Organized by the 1833 treaties, it formally started on 1 January 1834. However, its foundations had b ...
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
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
prior to the adoption of the Swiss franc
The Swiss 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) issues banknotes and the ...
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.Brabant ecus of 400 rappen (4 old francs) are converted at a rate of 7 old francs for 10 new francs, hence each kronenthaler is 4*10/7 = 40/7 Swiss francs., https://books.google.com/books?id=jfZUAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q&f=false
References
{{Crown Modern obsolete currencies Currencies of Europe