Kronenthaler

A deliberate minting of below-standard French écus, however, also resulted in a decreased silver content for the Kronenthaler.

The French annexation of the Southern Netherlands in 1794 resulted in the conversion of Kronenthalers and 6-livre écus into new French francs at the rate of 1 franc = 1.0125 livre tournois = 0.16875 écu = 4.5 grams fine silver.

[4][5] The kronenthaler was minted prolifically in the 19th century precisely because it yielded the issuer the maximum amount of guilders for a fixed quantity of coined silver.

The situation was resolved in the Netherlands by reducing the fine silver content of the Dutch gulden to 9.45 grams, and in the Southern German states by adopting a new parity of 1 gulden = 4⁄7 Prussian thaler = 1⁄24.5 Cologne mark =9.545 grams of silver as part of the German Customs Union and currency union of 1837.

The kronenthaler was also the most favorable medium of exchange in Switzerland prior to the adoption of the Swiss franc in 1850.