The Austro-Hungarian gulden (German), also known as the florin (German & Croatian), forint (Hungarian; Croatian: forinta), or zloty (Polish: złoty reński; Czech: zlatý), was the currency of the lands of the House of Habsburg between 1754 and 1892 (known as the Austrian Empire from 1804 to 1867 and the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy after 1867), when it was replaced by the Austro-Hungarian krone as part of the introduction of the gold standard.

The gulden first emerged as a common currency of the Holy Roman Empire after the 1524 Reichsmünzordnung in the form of the Guldengroschen.

[1][2] In the succeeding centuries the gulden was then defined as a fraction of the Reichsthaler specie or silver coin.

As Austria was the leading state of the Holy Roman Empire, it initiated the currency convention of 1754 in which the Conventionsthaler replaced the reichsthaler specie as the standard currency of the Holy Roman Empire.

In 1857, the Vereinsthaler was introduced across the German Confederation and Austria-Hungary, with a silver content of 16+2⁄3 grams.

Consequently, Austria-Hungary adopted a new standard for the gulden, containing two-thirds as much silver as the Vereinsthaler, or 11+1⁄9 g. This involved a debasement of the currency of 4.97%.

In 1807, copper coins were issued in denominations of 15 and 30 kreuzers by the Wiener Stadt Banco.

Between 1759 and 1811, the Wiener Stadt Banco issued paper money denominated in gulden.

That year, the Priviligirte Vereinigte Einlösungs und Tilgungs Deputation ("Privileged United Redemption and Repayment Deputation") began issuing paper money valued at par with the coinage, followed by the "Austrian National Note Bank" in 1816 and the "Privileged Austrian National Bank" between 1825 and 1863.