The mines of Joachimsthal in Bohemia, have long been celebrated for their riches. They were successfully worked at an early period, and though their produce has been exceedingly fluctuating, yet the mining district, in which they occur, continues one of the most important of that country. They seem to have been particularly lucrative and important while they belonged to the house of the Counts Schlick, and when, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, a larger kind of silver coin was introduced into Germany, it took the name of Joachimsthaler, from the place of its coinage, a name which was afterwards changed into thaler, talaro, and dollar.

These mines are not less remarkable for the variety of the species, and for the beauty of the specimens which they have produced. The ancient collections of minerals at Vienna, the Imperial cabinet, that of Von der Nüll, that of Von Morgenbesser, and others, contain magnificent suites of sulphuret of silver, of red silver, &c. chiefly crystallised. The finest specimens, however, of the red silver, and perhaps the finest that ever were known in the species, were dug up so late as 1817 and 1822. The National Museum at Prague possesses one of them, consisting of a group of crystals several inches long, without having any rock attached to it, and weighing about twelve marks, or upwards of six pounds Avoirdupois, the value of the silver of which is more than L. 16 Sterling.