Silver Thaler from Bohemia

Date: 1516 - 1526

Materials: Silver

Origin: Bohemia

Diameter: 41 mm

Accession No: 1934C48

In the 1510s the Counts of Schlick in Bohemia (today part of the Czech Republic) discovered rich silver mines at a place called St.Joachimsthal and began to mint larger silver coins than had normally been used in Europe before. The coins (like this specimen) became known as Joachimsthalers', which was rapidly shortened to 'talers'. This name soon came to be used to describe any silver coin of about the same size and eventually passed into English as 'dollar'.

Presented by J Lander, 1934.