Guldengroschen
1486 ・ silver ・ 15th century ・ Hall mint, Tyrol
In 1486 Archduke Sigismund of Tyrol — a ruler handed down under the byname 'the rich in coin' — had a large silver coin struck at the Hall mint. On the face the archduke standing with a sceptre; on the back an armoured rider, with the date 1486 running around. A value equal to one gold gulden, expressed in a single piece of silver from rich mines — one of the earliest large silver coins in the world. Thirty years later the experiment flowered in a Bohemian valley as the 'thaler', and that name became the 'dollar' and went round the world. The opening form of the line of modern silver coinage.