| Description | The Gulden or forint (German: Gulden, Hungarian: forint, Croatian: forinta/florin, Czech: zlatý) was the currency of the lands of the House of Habsburg between 1754 and 1892 (known as the Austrian Empire from 1804 to 1867 and the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy after 1867), when it was replaced by the Krone/korona as part of the introduction of the gold standard. In Austria, the Gulden was initially divided into 60 Kreuzer, and in Hungary, the forint was divided into 60 krajczár. The currency was decimalized in 1857, using the same names for the unit and subunit.
Until 1806, Austria was the leading state of the Holy Roman Empire. With the introduction of the Conventionsthaler as the principal currency of the Empire in 1754, when it began to replace the Reichsthaler, the Gulden was defined as half of a Conventionsthaler, equivalent to 1⁄20 of a Cologne mark of silver, and was subdivided into 60 Kreuzer. Following the winding up of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the Gulden became the standard unit of account in the Habsburg Empire and remained so until 1892.
In 1857, the Vereinsthaler was introduced across the German Confederation and Austria-Hungary, with a silver content of 16 2⁄3 grams. This was slightly less than 1 1⁄2 times the silver content of the Gulden. Consequently, Austria-Hungary adopted a new standard for the Gulden, containing two-thirds as much silver as the Vereinsthaler. This involved a debasement of the currency of 4.97%. Austria-Hungary also decimalized at the same time, resulting in a new currency system of 100 Kreuzer (krajczár) = 1 Gulden (forint) and 1 1⁄2 Gulden = 1 Vereinsthaler. |
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