The most important: The Maria Theresia Thaler or Levante Thaler. Its name originates from Maria Theresa, Queen of Bohemia and Hungary, Archduchess of Austria, who ruled from 1740 to 1780.
The first coin was minted in 1741 and there were many versions of it. But it was not until, at the insistence of Maria Theresia, this coin was minted to the highest design standard, and with a strict regulation of the amount of silver it should contain.
In 1753, the empress and the Bavarian Dutch sign a minting convention, defining the weight and silver content for all Maria Theresa coins minted in Austria and Bavaria. They were 28 grams, with 85% silver purity and measuring 42 mm in diameter. After the empress’s death in 1780, her son Joseph II allowed the Austrian mint to continue striking the coin with the frozen date of 1780.
More than thirty million Maria Theresia Thalers were minted and distributed through different European ports to the East, Egypt and the Red Sea. Its diffusion reached China, India and it was used in Africa as official currency until the Second World War. The Maria Theresa Thaler came to fill a very important business niche. Europe needed exotic products like coffee, gum arabic, spices, perfume oils, and Arabia needed silver for trade, traditional jewelry, and dowries.
With the rise of the coffee trade in the 18th century, large numbers of Maria Theresa Thaler coins became available to the Arabian Peninsula. Only ten years after being minted in Vienna, these coins found their way into the hands of coffee retailers in the port of Mocha in Yemen, who sold their coffee to Austria. The demand for coffee increased in Europe and the Maria Theresa Thalers were exchanged for coffee cultivation in the highlands of Yemen.
In 1900, more than two hundred million MTT circulated in Yemen and Ethiopia. Soon other cities started attacking him like Bombay, London, Vienna, Rome.
Here we have the origin of the silver of traditional Yemeni jewelry. We can find the currency itself in different pieces of traditional Yemeni jewelry. It was used as an amulet, embossed with precious stones and decorated with bells and chains. One of the reasons is the beauty of the Maria Theresa Thaler, its design and fine craftsmanship. In a short time it gained the fame of being one of the most beautiful coins in the world.
Its high and reliable silver content, as well as its aesthetics, played a huge role in its worldwide fame. The jewels that contain the Thaler serve to give status to those who wear them, both for the image of the Empress and for their brilliance. It was said that its brightness attracts the devil and keeps it away from whoever wears it.
This fascinating and beautiful coin with so much history can still be found with some Yemeni jewelers in Sana’a, and also as the main part of a traditional Yemeni necklace.
