The Vereinsthaler was the product of the Dresden Convention of 1838, which established a common monetary standard across the German states — 14 thalers to the Cologne mark of silver. Johann of Saxony came to the throne in 1854, and his thaler issues span the critical decade in which Prussia systematically dismantled Saxon political independence, culminating in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. Saxony backed Austria, lost, and was forcibly absorbed into the North German Confederation.
The Vereinsthaler itself was formally demonetized in 1908, but ceased as a struck coin with German unification in 1871.
The Vereinsthaler was the product of the Dresden Convention of 1838, which established a common monetary standard across the German states — 14 thalers to the Cologne mark of silver. Johann of Saxony came to the throne in 1854, and his thaler issues span the critical decade in which Prussia systematically dismantled Saxon political independence, culminating in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. Saxony backed Austria, lost, and was forcibly absorbed into the North German Confederation.
The Vereinsthaler itself was formally demonetized in 1908, but ceased as a struck coin with German unification in 1871.