Can "cruisers" be currency? | AskHistorians Archive Observer

Is it almost certain that the word you are looking for is 'kreuzer'. This was a coin used in many southern German states, introduced in mid-13th century that shared its name with the class of warships ('cruiser' in English). The similarity is incidental, as kreuzers were named after the cross (ger. Kreuz) depicted on the face of the first coin of that type and commonly adorned Tyrolean silver coins. Although they were initially known simply as 'Tyrolean Grosh' or 'zwanziger', from German word for 'twenty' as they were equal to 20 Venetian denars, a financcial document from one of the Bavarian monasteries made in 1290s refers to the coin as 'crucer' (lat. 'crux' - cross) and another document issued in northern Tyrol in early 1300s calls them 'chreutzaer pfenning' (cross penny). Although I can hardly fathom how someone translated the German word as 'cruiser' despite obvious context, that would not be the strangest translation I have seen. In case you're interested, the name of the ship is derived from German word 'kreuzen' meaning 'cruising' and is quite possibly a calque of English word.

Initially, kreuzers were small silver coins, and in 1566 there were made equal to 1/60th of a Rhenish Gulden, weighed 1.66 g and consisted of 88% silver (amounting to 1.44 g). Since 1760s, German kreuzers were predominantly made of copper, although in Austria and later Austro-Hungary, larger denomination (such as 20 kreuzers) were still minted out of silver. The remained in use until the monetary reforms. In Germany is was withdrawn in 1871, when the Golden Mark was introduced, while in Austria it became a 'new kreuzer' worth 1/100th of a gulden (0.11 g of silver) according to a Viennese Monetary Convention signed by Austria and several southern German states in 1857 and remained in use until early 1900s. They were also known as 'grajcar' in Polish lands annexed by Austria in the end of 18th century and 'krajczar' in Hungary.