1. Forum
  2. Usenet
  3. SOC.GENEALOGY.GERMAN

  • Value of Thalers in 1840

    From [email protected]@21:1/5 to Greg Rehme on Wed Mar 27 09:16:44 2019
    On Friday, 29 April 2005 01:50:06 UTC+2, Greg Rehme wrote:
    My greatgrandfather came to America about 1840 with 450 thalers. Can anyone tell me what they were worth in 1840 US Dollars? Was this considered a substantial amount of money in Hesse in 1840?

    Thanks for reading.
    Greg Rehme

    After the Prussian victory over Austria in 1866, Prussia rewarded Bismarck with a gift of 40,000 thaler, according to Fritz Stern's book "Gold and Iron". That would be the equivalent of just over 10 million USD today.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From [email protected]@21:1/5 to All on Sat Apr 6 14:24:52 2019
    Dear All, and especially Victor,
    Thank you for your replies here.

    Victor's reply from March 27, 2019, helped me as well.

    I come from Klaipeda (Memel before 1923). In 1862 a very wealthy Memel merchant-filantropist Julius Ludwig Wiener died and left most of his money to Memel town - namely 313 789 Prussian thalers.

    So, using numbers in Victor's reply, in today's terms it would be equivalent to approx. 69 840 000 EUR. Wow!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)