Description

Maria Theresa ruled the Habsburg dominions for 40 years, the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Transylvania, and the Austrian Netherlands. The death of her father, Emperor Charles VI, in 1740 prompted a seven-year War of Austria Succession, when some of the neighboring rulers repudiated the 1713 Pragmatic Sanction designed to make her inheritance seamless. The beloved queen died in 1780, a date ”frozen“ on coins minted for centuries after.–This silver thaler was struck by Italy in Eritrea in the 1930s. Maria Theresa thalers like this were the common currency used in East Africa in the Interwar period and through World War II.