The currency was eked out by the Austrian gold ducats and by vast quantities of foreign silver, French _6-livre thalers_ (current for 2 florins 48 kreutzers) and the _crown_ or _Brabant thaler_ (current for 2 florins 42 kreutzers). From 1807 onwards this latter coin was imitated by the South German States, Bavaria especially, in their _crown thaler_, minted on a fresh basis of 24-1/2 guldens to the mark of fine silver.
The selfish initiative of Austria was followed by Prussia and the South German States. The latter, the Rhenish and South German States, adopted in 1761-65 the 24-gulden; subsequently changed into the 24-1/2-gulden standard (see Appendix VI.). The overvaluation of the _Kronthaler_, which led to that latest development from a 24 to a 24-1/2-gulden standard, was the result of the immense circulation of French 6-livre pieces (known in Germany as _Laubthalers_) in South-West Germany. Graumann quite discredits the theory that the overswimming of South Germany by these French pieces, with all the confusion in the currency which resulted, was due to the wars and the progress of French arms, and directly attributes it to the depreciation of the French specie, and to their quite deliberate departure from the standard of French coinage as fixed in 1726.
[Sidenote: SOUTH GERMAN AND PRUSSIAN SYSTEMS]
In Prussia the reform of the coinage system was undertaken by her first King, Frederick I., father of Frederick the Great. In 1750 the latter adopted the 14-thaler or 21-gulden standard, subdividing the thaler into 24 groschens of 12 pfennige each. The measure was undertaken expressly to stop the export of gold which was going on. The adoption of a standard lower than the Convention standard effectually prevented the outflow of Prussian money, and it was not until the beginning of the present century, through the new Mint confusion which arose from the French Revolution, that Prussian money spread into Saxony, Hanover, Hesse, and even into the south-west. The second idea of Frederick's reform was to buy gold cheap, but in this it did not succeed. The intention was to obtain for five Prussian thalers the gold _pistoles_, which were purchasable for five convention thalers. This rate, however, never prevailed in the market, as from the first the _pistole_ was valued at 5-1/4 Prussian thalers. During the Seven Years War, when Frederick was driven to a depreciation of his coinage, his system went to pieces. But an active reform was undertaken upon the conclusion of the peace of Hubertsburg, 1763. The 14-thaler system was re-established, although, as far as the smaller divisional silver coinage was concerned, the depreciation, in which Frederick had been imitated by the pettier states round him, continued into the present century.