A large silver coin from 16th-century German states that was worth approximately one gulden.
Compound of 'gulden' (gold coin) and 'groschen' (from Middle Low German 'groschen', ultimately from Latin 'grossus', meaning thick). The coin was created to provide a bulky equivalent to the smaller gold gulden. It represents monetary innovation during the Renaissance.
This coin is a perfect example of how economies had to solve problems before ATMs—they needed big coins people could actually see and carry! The 'groschen' became so famous that it appeared in many European languages as their word for a small coin.
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