Heller: coin from Free imperial city of Aachen (1580-1798)

HELLER: COIN OF AACHEN (GERMANY)

4 heller, 1744: Free imperial city of Aachen

4 heller, 1744: Free imperial city of Aachen

Small eagle (Coat of arms of Free Imperial City of Aachen) between stars.

REICHS STAT ACH (abbreviated with a typo "Reichsstadt Aachen") - IIII: Imperial City of Aachen, 4 (heller).

Big eagle (Coat of arms of Free Imperial City of Aachen).

Date on coin: 1744.

The denomination on the coin is indicated in Roman numerals in a non-standard format (not IV, but IIII).

Mintage: 800.000.

  • Copper: 19 mm - 1.65 g
  • Reference price: 12$

COIN HELLER — WHERE & WHEN (coins catalog: by names & emitents)
  1. FREE IMPERIAL CITY OF AACHEN (1580-1798): heller = 1/2 pfennig = 1/576 thaler
  2. many, many different issuers...

Heller is one of the most common coins of old Europe. For a long time (13th-20th centuries) a number of states issued this coin. All of them can be combined into several conditional groups:

  • GERMAN STATES (13th-19th centuries): Aachen, Anhalt, Augsburg, Bavaria, Brandenburg-Bayreuth, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hanau-Münzenberg, Hessen-Kassel, Lippe, Nassau, Reuss-Obergreiz, Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Saxe-Coburg, Saxe-Hildburghausen, Saxony...
  • AUSTRIA (16th-20th centuries): Bishopric of Salzburg, Further Austria, Austrian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire…
  • BOHEMIA AND CZECH SILESIA (14th-17th centuries)
  • SWITZERLAND /SWISS CANTONS/ (15th-18th centuries): Appenzell, Bern, Lucerne, Zug...
  • GERMAN EAST AFRICA (1904-1916): heller = 1/100 rupie

Pay attention — formally heller (Germany), haléř (Czech) and halier (Slovakia) are three different coin's names.


The appearance of the name of the coin heller dates back to the Middle Ages (early 13th century) and is associated with the issuance of silver pfennigs in the German city of Schwäbisch Hall (German "Häller Pfennig"); over time, 1/2 pfennig and later 1/8 kreuzer began to be called heller.