I have been reading about MTTs recently and find it interesting the wide variety of mints who produced them and the wide geography where they were used all the way through World War II. In all I have been trying to read I have found very little on how MTTs are still used today. Do they still circulate as a medium of exchange anywhere? I would be especially interested in hearing from any world travelers on the forum who has seen them used first hand.
I do not think silver or gold in any form circulates as a medium of exchange today. MTT might still be made as a bullion item, but doubt highly they circulate. The last place I heard of them circulating was in the middle east, and none were circulating there in the early 90's when I was there.
I know in the late 1980s that some of them were still some form of exchange in packets in Yemen from stories I heard from co-workers that were sent there on oil exploration assignments. They were not actually used like a coin, but more like something more significant for "bribes" etc.
Right. See here: http://www.muenzeoesterreich.at/eng/produkte/maria-theresa-taler And no, they do not circulate anywhere ... Christian
I have not been able to find the article again and I regret not making the buy but at a used book store with a run of National Geographics, I found an article about Yemen (see above) in the 1980s; and, indeed, there were Maria Theresa Talers being used in the markets. And the article included a quote from a finance minister who said that they were trying to institute "modern currency" but that people were resistant.
If it was the 1980s, the "modern currency" would not have been precious metals. No surprise that Yemenis didn't want to give up silver for aluminum, copper-nickel, or worse yet, paper money. My guess would be that MTTs were retained as a store of wealth, to be hoarded whenever possible. There were no smaller silver coins to make "change" with. In addition, gold (British) sovereigns were widely available, but not in everyday commerce.
