Historical Sketch

The Austrian Margraviate emerged in the 10th century and was elevated to Duchy two centuries later, later styled into "Archduchy" by the Habsburg. The house of Habsburg conquered the Austrian throne in 1278 and kept it until the end of the monarchy in 1918. Through marriage and inheritance, the Habsburg dynasty acquired vast lands throughout Europe. The so-called Crown Lands were ruled in personal union but never united into statehood before 1804. In 1526, also the Hungarian crown fell to Habsburg, and Hungary developed into the second centre of the Habsburg Empire. The Archduchy of Austria was part of the Holy Roman Empire, and with a brief interruption, the House of Habsburg held the imperial crown until the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1804. Subsequently, the Archduchy and the Crown Lands were transformed into the Austrian Empire, which by the constitutional reforms of 1849 and 1867 was transformed into the Austro-Hungarian double monarchy. The defeat in World War I put an end to the Habsburg state. The last emperor was forced into abdication, and the state was partitioned along the language borders.

Monetary History Overview

In 1750, the Habsburg Empire passed a new coinage order based on the 1st Austrian Guilder as the main silver coin together with the Thaler of 2 Guilders. The weight of the golden Ducat was slightly redefined, it had no fixed value against silver. In 1753, a coin convention was concluded with neighbouring Bavaria to adopt the same standard, which therefore is referred to as "convention" standard. In 1780, Austria began minting a Convention Thaler coin for foreign trade, after the ruler referred to as "Maria Theresa Thaler", which saw worldwide circulation and was reissued until the mid-20th century. During the Seven Years War of the 1760s, the Habsburg government began issuing paper money via the state-owned Vienna City Bank ("Stadt-Banco"). The issuance expanded massively during the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century. In consequence, the government became unable to guarantee the value of the banknotes and declared state bankruptcy in 1811. The paper money was devalued to 20% of face value and the City Bank went into liquidation. However, new state paper money was issued in large amounts in the ongoing war. In 1816, another state bankruptcy was declared, and the paper money got devalued for the second time. One seventh of the face value was exchanged into specie coins, the rest was confiscated and transformed into a state loan. The Chartered Austrian National Bank became the new state bank. In 1857, the Habsburg Empire and the German Confederation concluded the Vienna Coinage Union ("Münzverein") which interlinked the two currency systems and replaced the Cologne mark by the metric pound as the base weight unit. The 2nd Austrian Guilder was still in the silver standard, just slightly lighter than its predecessor. The Coinage Union was dissolved after the German-Austrian war of 1866, the currencies in both Habsburg Austria and in Germany remained unchanged. The new Habsburg constitution of 1867 defined Austria and Hungary as two equal parts of the Empire. The now Austro-Hungarian Guilder (or "Forint" in Hungary) remained unchanged, but the Austrian National Bank was reconstituted into the Austro-Hungarian Bank in 1878. In the late 1860s, Austria-Hungary prepared to abandon the silver standard. Gold coins were issued in the standard of the Latin Monetary Union, but the parity could not be maintained such that the coins were traded for bullion. The currency reform was delayed for another two decades. In 1892 finally, Austria-Hungary switched to the gold standard and introduced the Austro-Hungarian Crown, which remained stable until the outbreak of World War II. In 1914, the gold standard was suspended, and the wartime expenditure gradually depreciated the currency. The defeat of 1918 brought the Austro-Hungarian state to collapse. In the treaty of Saint-Germain, the victors divided the Habsburg Empire into national states, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and left other parts for annexation by the neighbouring countries. The Austro-Hungarian Bank was partitioned and liquidated in each of the successor states, the Austro-Hungarian currency was nationalized and became the starting point for the Austrian, Hungarian and Czechoslovak currencies.

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