Between 1858 and 1892 this currency was in use in Austria. It was introduced with the adoption of the decimal system and was derived from the price of silver. In 1892 a crown currency based on gold was introduced.
I show a gold coin, a four-gold piece. Eight-gold coins were also minted. But I don't have this one. And in fact, my four-gold coins don't belong in the collection either. It's newly minted. The originals were minted between 1870 and 1892. The 1892 mintage continues to the present. But the details of the coin are still the same.
4 gulden, 1892, diameter 19 mm, weight 3.226 g of gold, purity 900/1000
I bought this coin on 26.6.2008. I paid 1.591,- CZK for it. According to today's exchange rate it would be 68.78 USD.
That's where the problem starts. Both the Czech koruna and the dollar are subject to inflation. Their exchange rate changes over time. I remember 1 dollar for 16 CZK, but also for 42 CZK. It's not that the CZK is just falling.
At that time I was planning to buy a gold eight-gulden the very next month. But then the price of gold started to rise. I waited for the price to drop again. But it never did. So I still don't have the coin. Lesson for me.
In 1997 I bought a two-gulden. I paid 1499,- CZK. It is original. It was also minted between 1858 and 1892.
2 gulden, 1859, diameter 36 mm, weight 24.69 g of silver, purity 900/1000
In my last article I have already shown this 1 guilder coin. It is my first coin that was in my family's possession long before I was born. I guess it inspired me to start collecting coins.
1 gulden, 1860, diameter 29 mm, weight 12.345 g of silver, purity 900/1000
Other coins are the ten-krejcar and the five-krejcar, which were minted 1858-1867. In 1866, Austria lost the war and became Austria-Hungary. Hungarian variants of the coins also began to be minted. New twenty-krutzerc and ten+kreutzer appeared.
10 kreutzer, 1858, diameter 18 mm, 2 g of silver, purity 500/1000
5 kreutzer, 1858, diameter 16 mm, 1.33 of "silver", 375/1000
I paid 199,- for the first coin in 1991 and 55,- for the second in 1989. But I paid in Czechoslovakian crowns. Czechoslovakia ceased to exist on 31.12.1992. How to convert the price of our currency then to today's dollars? It's difficult.
20 kreutzer, 1869, diameter 21 mm, weight 2.66 g of silver, purity 500/1000
10 kreutzer, 1872, diameter 18 mm, weight 1.66 g of "silver", purity 400/1000
The European one-cent, I have that here to compare the size of the coins.
What did I want to say with today's article? It's great to keep a record of when, where and how much you bought what. But it doesn't help in determining the current price of a coin. Not only does the price of gold change, but so does the price of currency, the exchange rates between currencies, prices in general, the purchasing power of currency, etc.
However, the price and value of all the coins I presented today have risen significantly over time. They are mostly collectible, historical coins in good condition.
The price of such coins could fall only if people lose interest in coin collecting. But the amount of people on the planet keeps increasing, and people as a whole are doing better and better. So I don't expect the price of these coins to drop.
A nuclear war or a truly deadly epidemic could trigger a price collapse. In that case, however, a drop in the price of my collection would probably be the least of my problems.
I have not presented by far all the coins that were valid in this period and that I have in my collection. Three others came to mind while writing this article. Hopefully I will get around to writing them in the near future.
Thank you for reading, thank you for any support.
