Does the word ‘thaler’ look a bit like ‘dollar’ to you?
If it does, that’s no coincidence.
The thaler actually helped inspire the United States silver dollar. In fact, the word ‘dollar’ actually derives from thaler.
Thalers are large coins that originated in Germany during the 16th century. The thaler was Europe’s first large silver coin.
During the 1700s, the Maria Theresa thaler (which may remind some of the Draped Bust silver dollars the United States Mint made during the 1790s and early 1800s) became a very popular coin that weighed 27 grams — about the same as a U.S. silver dollar!
I’m the Coin Editor here at TheFunTimesGuide. My love for coins began when I was 11 years old. I primarily collect and study U.S. coins produced during the 20th century.
I’m a member of the American Numismatic Association (ANA) and the Numismatic Literary Guild (NLG) and have won multiple awards from the NLG for my work as a coin journalist. I’m also the editor at the Florida United Numismatists Club (FUN Topics magazine), and author of Images of America: The United States Mint in Philadelphia (a book that explores the colorful history of the Philadelphia Mint). I’ve contributed hundreds of articles for various coin publications including COINage, The Numismatist, Numismatic News, Coin Dealer Newsletter, Coin Values, and CoinWeek.
I’ve authored nearly 1,000 articles here at The Fun Times Guide to Coins (many of them with over 50K shares), and I welcome your coin questions in the comments below!
