The Maria Theresa thaler – A Habsburg silver coin as an international means of payment
1780
The Maria Theresa thaler, first struck in 1741, was a very well-known silver coin, especially in the Arab world, because it was used in trade with the eastern Mediterranean. The great demand for the thaler led Joseph II to have the coin re-struck. As late as the twentieth century it was still treated as a kind of unofficial currency in some countries in north Africa. Even today the coin is still being struck and traded in the form it had in 1780.
