MARIA THERESIA TALERS
A Short History

The Archduchess of Austria and queen of Hungary and Bohemia (1740-80), consort of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and dowager empress after the accession in 1765 of her son, Joseph I, Maria Theresia strengthened and unified the Austrian monarchy in the 18th century.  Born in Vienna on May 13, 1717, she was the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI.  In 1736 she married Francis Stephen of Lorraine (later Holy Roman Emperor Francis I), and the couple eventually had 16 children, including two future emperors, Joseph II and Leopold II, and Marie Antoinette, later queen of France.

Her warm personality and strength of will won her the loyalty of her subjects and troops, to whom she appealed directly in moments of crisis. Her husband was given a share in governing her hereditary lands, but the actual government was in the hands of Maria Theresia.

On the 21st of September, 1753, Empress Maria Theresia signed a coinage convention with the Prince Elector of Bavaria.  This Treaty also defined the silver content of every coin and fixed ratio between the Gulden and Taler at 2:1. In addition, the coins had raised edged lettering to prevent clipping.

Between 1746 and her death on November 29, 1780, Austrian mints and the mints of several Austrian States produced no less than 43 different silver Taler designs using bust portraits of Maria Theresia, as well as, various denominations of Kreuzers, ¼ and ½ Talers, and gold Ducats.  The Maria Theresia Taler was also known as the "Levantine Taler" and has been considered the world's most famous silver coin.  The silver Taler itself was the currency of the Empire, the Austrian hereditary lands, and very important for trade with Levant (parts of Turkey, Lebanon, Syria).

The "Levantine Taler" became the best known and most popular silver coin in the Arabian world and the unofficial currency of some of the lands in North Africa.  In Austria, Maria Theresia Talers were legal tender until October, 1958.  Owing to an imperial patent dating back to September 19, 1857, the 1780 design of the empress Maria Theresia "Levantine Talers" have been continuously restruck unchanged, as an historical souvenir combining beauty of design with the value of silver.

In it's heyday, it was the most widely accepted silver coin in the Middle East and North Africa, nearly becoming an unofficial currency in some areas.  In many African countries, this coin was still used as legal tender into the Second World War and produced by several different countries, however in 1961 the Austrian government ruled that no other country could strike the talers and all restrikes are now produced at the Vienna Mint.