Hello everyone!,
My wife and I have found what appears VISUALLY to be a 1760 Maria Theresia Austrian Thaler. The problem is that it weighs less than 6 grams (alloy) and the research says it should weigh about 28 grams (silver). All dimensions, inscriptions and artwork appear authentic. It's beautifully made in the tiniest detail and I think it must have been produced with Austrian mint approval. Could anyone help us identify just what it is or when/where it might have been made.

Welcome to CoinPeople! Hmm, if your piece has the same size as the most common Maria Theresia Thaler type (39.5 mm) but weighs about 6 g only, then it could be made from aluminum. Or maybe some other metal/alloy, but not silver. See the medals on this page http://www.theresia.name/cgi-bin/Token.cgi...amp;Language=en (and the two following pages) which are based on the MTT design.

Problem with the Maria Theresia Thaler is that, due to its popularity, it was minted for so many years (with the year 1780 though), at so many different mints, that there are numerous variants, forgeries, imitations ...

Christian

Dear Tabbs, thanks for your quick reply to our query. Yes, I agree that the 1780 had a great number of re-mints etc. the puzzling thing is this very clear date of 1760 on the one we dug up here in south eastern Australia. Again, many thanks. I'll let you know if we finally uncover the mystery of our 1760 thaler made with a very 20th century metal.
Best regards, Wal and Jill. (wajil)

Ps. New to this site and hope we are pushing the right buttons to reply properly.