Coins in jewellery

The Maria Theresia Thaler in Middle Eastern jewellery

Published Feb 26, 2024

The Austrian Maria Theresia Thaler was to become the most widespread and well-known coin in Africa and Asia. It is the first international coin, and it was particularly popular in the Middle East and North Africa. What is the story behind this popular coin?

The Maria Theresia Thaler: its history

The Maria Theresia Thaler gets its name from Habsburg heiress Maria Theresia. Maria Theresia ascended to the throne of the Habsburg empire in Vienna aged 23, on the death of her father Charles VI. She was crowned Queen of Hungary in 1741, Queen of Bohemia in 1743, and bore the title of Empress from 1745, when her husband became Holy Roman Emperor Francis I.  From 1741 onwards, she had her own coins minted.

Maria Theresia ruled for forty years. She had sixteen children, one of which was the ill-fated Marie-Antoinette who would, much later, be beheaded in the French Revolution. But what she really managed to pull off was improving the economic situation of the empire. When she came to the throne, it had serious debts, and it took a determined CFO to get the empire afloat again.

From 1753, the Maria Theresia Thaler became increasingly popular; the empress officially announced the silver content of this and other coins to be minted in Bavaria and Austria, and set the exchange rates and the design standards in a treaty with Bavaria.

Being officially guaranteed and very hard to forge due to the intricacies of the design, the coin quickly became much sought after by traders and merchants. 

What does the name thaler mean?

The word thaler refers to the Joachimsthal (meaning Joachims’ Valley) in Bohemia, and it was here that silver was mined and minted into large silver coins. After the source of the silver, they were called thalers. Soon this German word became the generic term for basically any large silver coin and, as such, was quickly absorbed into various other languages. And you are very familiar with it: this word became ‘dollar’ in English.

Maria Theresia Thaler: enduring heritage

When Maria Theresia died in 1780, the coin was still in such high demand that it continued to be struck, forever bearing the date of 1780. These are called restrikes. It was accepted as official currency in Austria until 1858, when it continued to be in use as official trade coinage, but no longer as domestic currency. Since then, the coin has been in almost continuous production.

It played an important role in the coffee trade, was used in World Wars I and II to pay North-African allies and has acted as official currency innumerable times. Today, it is still used in the markets of Oman as a solid weight to measure silver objects. Actually, it is still produced by the Vienna Mint, and estimates have anywhere between 300 million and a staggering 800 million MTTs in existence today.

Maria Theresia Thaler: its many names

In European shorthand, the Maria Theresia Thaler is often abbreviated to MTT.

The MTT was the most popular coin in circulation in North Africa and the Middle East and went by many names: Abu Tayr (Father of Birds) referring to the imperial eagle; Abu Nuqta (Father of Dots) a reference to the number of pearls on the brooch of the empress; and Abu Rish (Father of Feathers) a name suggested by the eagle’s many tail feathers.

All these distinctive features were used to check the authenticity of the coin. Because, as I will show you later, this coin was imitated as a large scale. In purely monetary terms, the coin was referred to as Riyal Faransawi, (French Riyal) or Riyal Nimsawi, (Austrian Riyal).

Maria Theresia Thalers in jewellery from North Africa and the Middle East

The MTT is used in jewellery from the Maghreb all the way to Southeast Asia. You’ll find it in three ways:

1 – As complete coin. The coins are added to headdresses, necklaces, face veils and even rings. They may have bails added to them to facilitate stringing, or holes pierced into them to sew them firmly to a textile backing.

Usually, the visible side of the thaler is the reverse, depicting the eagle and coat of arms; since representations of human beings are forbidden in Islam, the coin is usually worn with the effigy of the empress on the underside.

2 – Fashioned into another shape. In this case, the coin has been altered, but can still be recognized. Examples are the crosses from Ethiopia, where the central element of the coin can still be seen in the centre (so the portrait of the empress or the coat of arms).

3 – Invisibly. Unbeknownst to most people, the thaler even has an invisible presence. Its high-grade silver content made it the material of choice for a lot of silver jewellery. Occasionally, the coin was fashioned into a pendant, on which traces of the original can still be seen, but the coins were more commonly melted down and reused completely.

Most thalers in jewellery are restrikes, all bearing the date of 1780. That does not mean they are actually from 1780: in fact, they may be relatively new.

Just like the pillar dollar, this coin was imitated very often, too. This was to serve more as a status symbol than as actual currency, and so you’ll find imitations in a varying range of success.

The Maria Theresia Thaler: the most popular coin in jewellery

You’ll see MTT’s used in jewellery very, very often! Sometimes, they have sat together for so long that it reflects in their wear patterns, and sometimes they are so new that the design is still crisp and fresh. Both old and new coins, as well as their imitations, reflect the importance of a steady source of silver for both economical purposes and jewellery: a tradition that has continued for 3 centuries!

This article is based on my book Desert Silver.

—

More posts on the stories objects may hold? Browse them all here!

Join the Jewellery List and receive new articles, jewellery news and more in your inbox!

More on the use of coins in jewellery from the Middle East and North Africa? Check out the course on Dowry & Status!

—

References

[1] Although the pillar dollar was a coin of equal importance, many more books have been dedicated to the Maria Theresa Thaler. See for example Gervais, R. 1982. Pre-Colonial Currencies: A Note on the Maria Theresa Thaler, in: African Economic History No. 11 and Pond, S. 1941. The Maria Theresa Thaler. A famous Trade Coin, in: Bulletin of the Business Historical Society Vol. 15 No. 2. A very helpful book is Semple, C. 2005. A Silver Legend: the story of the Maria Theresa Thaler, Barzan Publishing.

[2] Vale describes how in Siwa oasis silver coins, obtained after selling a good harvest, were sent to the silversmiths to be melted down and turned into jewellery. See Vale 2011, p. 32.

Would you like to quote this article? Please do! Here’s how:

S. van Roode, [write the title as you see it above this post], published on the Bedouin Silver website [paste the exact link to this article], accessed on [the date you are reading this article and decided it was useful for you].