Large Silver Coins

to the community.

Now a days there aren't many large silver coins being made. In the US the America Silver Eagle 1 dollar 1 oz .9999 is the largest. This is bullion and not a coin that you would want to spend if you could. Most large silver coins are from the early 20th century and back through the 19th, 18th, etc.. centuries. German and the German Sates produced large 5 mark and large Thaler coins. Austrian produced beautiful talers and shooting Talers, France and Belgium produced large 5 Francs coins, and lets not forget Spain and it's possessions with the 8 Reale coins, which were used in the US until the mid 19th century. The list goes on with countries that have produce large silver coins throughout the centuries.

And of course in the UK we have currently the most beautiful silver coin in the world, the Britannia

As far as one ounce bullion coins are concerned, several countries make them. Canadian maple leaves, Australian kookaburras, Chinese pandas, British britannias, Austrian philharmonics, Mexican onzas; all are popular. There are also plenty of modern commemorative "coins" out there.

If you're after formerly circulating coins, there are plenty more to choose from. In world coin collecting terminology, a large "dollar-sized" coin is called a "crown"; this is named after the large silver 5 shilling coins called "crowns" once issued by Britain and several British colonies. British crowns are slightly larger and heavier tan a US silver dollar. A "crown" in either the general or literal sense can be either silver or cupronickel.

Australia, for example, only made one type of "crown", in 1937 and 1938. Sterling silver (.925 fine), mintage a bit over a million, weight 28.27 grams. The design looked like this (picture snitched from djluster's CCF gallery):


There's even a reference book for people who are only interested in crowns and dollar-sized coins: "World Crowns and Talers" by Davenport. It lists large silver coins going right back to the joachimsthalers of mediaeval Bohemia, the distant ancestor of the "dollar".