page_title: Thaler
section_title: Holy Roman Empire
hierarchical_section_title: Thaler / Holy Roman Empire
caption_attribution_description: English: Free imperial city of Hamburg (Holy Roman Empire), half-portugalöser (1679).[1] Equivalent to five ducats. Engraved by Johann Christoph Retke.[2]Text reads as follows: (obverse) DEINE GÜTE HERR SEY VBER UNS WIE WIR AUFF DICH HOFFEN (Lord, may thy kindness be with us just as we have hoped for) and (reverse) GOTT LOB DER UNS SO GÜTIG LIEBT • DEM KRIEGE WEHRT UND FRIDEN GIBT (God loves our praise so graciously that he gives unto war first resistance then peace).verbatim
context_page_description: A thaler is one of the large silver coins minted in the states and territories of the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburg monarchy during the Early Modern period. A thaler size silver coin has a diameter of about 40 mm and a weight of about 25 to 30 grams, or roughly 1 ounce.
  The word is shortened from Joachimsthaler, the original thaler coin minted in Joachimstal, Bohemia, from 1518.
  After the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire, the German Reichstaler survived in the form of the Prussian thaler until 1871.
  The thaler silver coin type continued to be minted as legal tender of modern currencies, such as the US silver dollar and the Swiss 5 francs coin.
  Copies of the Maria Theresia thaler were made by various government mints until the 1960s.
  Many government mints continue to issue thaler sized silver coins with face values in national currency, now known as bullion coins, as their silver value significantly exceeds the face value.
  The English form of the name, dollar, survives as the name of a number of modern currencies.
  Also from the name of the thaler is the Samoan currency name tālā and the Slovenian
  tolar.
context_section_description: The new large silver coins that became ubiquitous as the 16th century went on were named thaler in German, while in England and France, they were named crown and écu, respectively, both names taken from what had originally been gold coins. The thaler size silver coins minted in Habsburg Spain was the eight real coin, later also known as peso and in English as "Spanish dollar".
  The "city view" thalers of the 17th and 18th century have predecessors in stylised representations of cities (as three towers, or a city gate) on the obverse of thaler coins in the late 16th century, such as the Lüneburg thaler of Rudolf II made in 1584. More elaborate city views become current in the first half of the 17th century (e.g. Augsburg 1627, Nürnberg 1631).
  The type continues to be popular throughout the 18th century, culminating in detailed city panoramas rendered in one-point perspective.
  In the late 16th and 17th centuries, there was a fashion of oversized thaler coins, the so-called "multiple thalers", often called Löser in Germany.
  The first were minted in Duchy of Brunswick-Luneburg, and indeed the majority were struck there. Some of these coins reached colossal size, as much as sixteen normal thalers, exceeding a full poud (over 450 g) of silver and being over 12 cm (5 in) in diameter.
  The name Löser most likely was derived from a large gold coin minted in Hamburg called the portugalöser, worth 10 ducats, which were based on Portuguese 10-ducat coins. 
  Eventually the term was applied to numerous similar coins worth more than a single thaler. These coins are very rare and   highly sought after by   collectors. As few of them were circulated in any real sense, they often remain in well-preserved condition.
  In the Holy Roman Empire, the thaler was used as the standard against which the various states' currencies could be valued. One standard also adopted by Prussia was the Reichsthaler, which contained ​¹⁄₁₄ of a Cologne mark of silver. In 1754, the Conventionsthaler was introduced, containing ​¹⁄₁₀ of a Cologne mark of silver.
caption: Half portugalöser (five ducats) minted in Hamburg, 1679
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