Coin and Paper Money Collecting/1780 Thaler

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Expert: - 3/11/2010


Question

ReverseT
I have 2 Maria Theresa Silver Thalers. I got onto a web site that has about 100 variations to this coin (http://www.theresia.name/en/ - and go to the description of variants tab). I narrowed it down to Leypold column 4 and Hafner column 49A through 70. These classify as common. Some questions I must ask. 1: On the edge where it's supposed to say "JUSTITIA" there's an "I" instead of a "J". Was this meant to be? 2: On the H69, it say edge surrounded by pearls. Is this the obverse and/or reverse face or the side itself? 3: Is the Ag content for all these variations the same? Thank you for your time.
                                                ........DP

Answer
Hello again Donn,
There are so many slight variations to these coins that finding out the exact variety can be very frustrating. I will certainly answer your questions. First it's important to point out that these were re-struck up until 1984 and the one in the attached picture was made within the past 100 years. That site lists that over 300 million of these were struck, however there have been instances of dealers in the Middle East trying to sell hoards of over 1 billion of the re-strike coins. The actual number in existence is not known, but is estimated to be near 10 billion coins (when you include all of the "unofficial", but real silver copies).

As per your questions:
1. Such a spelling error is not uncommon. This is something you often see when the dies are cut by individuals not fluent in the language on simply not well educated. This is not on purpose, since there is no history of an I being used for J, such as with the V and U letters on these coins. It does add to the interest of the coin, but not likely to add anything significant to the value.

2. This would be on the edge itself, surrounding the lettering. They call them pearls, but it looks like a series of small incuse dots.

3. No, the silver content varies from .833 for the older versions (1780-1800) and .900 for the later ones. Most of the re-strikes are .900 silver, though some are known as high as .925 and as low as .750.

Thanks again for the questions! =)

Dmitry Livshits

Expertise

My specialty is world coins from the 18th to 20th centuries, primarily non-US foreign coins and related areas such as errors and exonumia (tokens, medals, etc.). I can answer questions relating to identification, grading, selling, preservation and evaluation of such items. In addition to catalog value, I can give you the practical market value and trends for specific types of coins. I will also take questions regarding counterfeits (both modern and antique) and on how to identify them. I am NOT knowledgeable in paper money/banknotes, ancient or "shipwreck" coins. Thank you.

Experience

Collector of world coins since early childhood. Access to a variety of auction records and reference material. You can also find me on Facebook.

Education/Credentials
A.S. in Psychology (2006), B.A. in Forensic Psychology (2008), M.A. in Forensic Psychology (2011).

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