The History of Currency, 1252 to 1896 Part 36

German Standards: Silver.

In brief resume, the historic standards of the German monetary system have been as follows:--Nos. 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13 representing the systems in existence at the time of the projection of the great currency reform of 1871:--

1. Old imperial standard of 1559, based on the Reichs Munz ordnung of Ferdinand I., mark of fine silver = 8 thalers. Altered in 1622, so that 9 thalers 2 grs. = 1 mark fine silver.

2. The _Zinnaische_ standard, agreed upon by Saxony and Brandenburg at Zinna, 1667, 1 mark fine silver = 10-1/2 thaler = 15-3/4 guldens.

3. Leipzig standard or Torgau standard (see text, p. 200), mark fine silver = 18 gulden.

4. The Prussian standard, 14 thalers or 21 guldens = 1 mark fine silver (see above, p. 379).

5. Convention standard or Austrian standard, mark fine silver = 20 gulden (see above, p. 375).

6. The 24-gulden standard or new imperial standard of 1766 (see above, p. 377), 1 mark fine silver = 24 guldens.

7. The 24-1/2, or South German standard (see above, p. 378), 1 mark fine silver = 24-1/2 guldens.

8. The kronen-thaler standard, existing more or less between 1808 and 1837 in such of the states of the South as had adopted the minting of the Brabant or crown thaler-piece, 9.18 to a mark fine, and issued at 2 guldens 42 kreutzers, representing a 24-4/5-gulden standard. It was this system which called into being the 24-1/2-gulden standard, by the evolution of which it was itself completely superseded.

9. Wechselzahlung, or Wechselgeld, the bank reckoning system of Frankfort-on-the-Maine, 20-4/55 guldens = 13-21/55 thalers = 1 mark fine silver. The standard was, therefore, 4/11 lighter than the 20-gulden or convention standard.

10. The Augsburg girogeld, a system which existed till 1st July 1845, and in which the exchange with Amsterdam and Hamburg was expressed. Mark of fine silver = 15-95/127 gulden giro (100 gulden giro = 127 gulden of the convention standard). This system was displaced by the introduction of the 24-1/2-gulden standard.

11. The Lubeck courant (or Hamburg courant, as described above), the mark of fine silver = 11-1/3 thaler, or 34 marks.

12. Hamburg banco, the system of reckoning of the Hamburg Bank. From 1790 the bank reckoned the mark of fine silver = 9-5/24 thaler-banco, or 27-5/8 mark-banco. The issue rate was, however, 9-1/4 thaler, or 27-3/4 mark-banco, the slight premium simply covering the expenses of the bank.

In 1846 this difference was abolished, the mark of fine silver both for receipt and disburs.e.m.e.nt being reckoned at 27-3/4 marks (27 marks 12 schillings). The Hamburg banco was, therefore, appreciated above the Hamburg courant by a matter of 22.5225 per cent.

13. The Schleswig-Holstein courant, mark of fine silver = 11-9/16 thaler, or 34-11/16 marks.

Gold Standards.

1. Imperial or ducat standard. The Imperial Mint Ordinance of 1559 contains the first mention of the ducat in German legislation, prescribing it 67 to the mark, 23-1/2-carat fine. Subsequently the standard varied slightly. Austria minted them 23 carat 8 grs. for herself (_kaiserlichen_), at 23 carat 9 grs. for Hungary (_kremnitzer_).

The other German states approximated between a 23-carat 6 grs. and a 23-carat 8 grs. standard. Baden struck ducats 22 carat 6 grs. fine, 63.697 to the mark.

2. The _Pistole_ standard (_Friedrichs d'or_, _August d'or_, _Wilhelms d'or_, _Carls d'or_, or generally, _Louis d'or_), mostly in the Northern States of Denmark, mostly 35-1/6 to the mark, 21-1/2 carats fine, though with considerable variations (e.g. the Saxon _august d'or_, 35 to the mark, 21 carats 8 grs. fine. In Bremen this was the legal currency, the _louis d'or_ being taken at 5 thalers at 72 groot, each groot at 5 schwaren). For a considerable period, far into the present century, the merchants of Mecklenburg, Hanover, and Brunswick kept their accounts in gold pistoles (= 5 thalers). Prussia (as above, p. 382) fixed the pistole at 5-2/3 thalers, but elsewhere it had a varying (mercantile) equivalence.

3. The gold gulden standard. The last of the three Imperial Mint Ordinances (1559) prescribed gold gulden 72 to the mark, 18-1/2 carat fine. They continued to be coined in Southern German states and in Hanover up to the middle of the eighteenth century.

TABLE OF THE GOLD COINS OF GERMANY--GULDEN, DUCAT, AND FRIEDRICHS D'OR.

+--------------------+---------+---------------------+---------------------+ | | Tale | | Value of the Piece | | | to the | | as expressed in | | Year. | Cologne | Standard. | Coin of the | | | Mark. | | 20-Florin Standard. | +--------------------+---------+---------------------+---------------------+ | | | Kar. Grs. | Fl. Kr. Pfge. | |1252-- | | | | | Florentine florin | | | | | or gold gulden | | | | | (64 to the | | | | | Florence mark) | 44-3/8 | 24 0 | 6 22 3-405/2911 | | | | | | |1371-- | | | | | Gold gulden of | | | | | Cune, Archbishop | | | | | of Treves, | | | | | Wenceslaus of | | | | | Bohemia | 66 | 23 0 | 4 6 2-434/781 | | | |(and 1 0 of silver)| | | | | | | |1386 and 1399-- | | | | | Gold gulden of the | | | | | Rhenish Princes. | | | | | Adopted by Rupert | | | | | II. in 1402 | 66 | 22 6 | 4 1 1-85/781 | | | |(and 1 6 of silver)| | |1409-- | | | | | The gulden of the | | | | | three Spiritual | | | | | Electors (adopted | | | | | in the same year | | | | | by the Netherlands| | | | | at Speyer, and by | | | | | the States of the | | | | | Empire at Cologne)| 66 | 22 0 | 3 55 3-517/721 | | | | | | |1419-- | | | | | Gold Gulden of | | | | | Elector Frederick | | | | | of Brandenburg (66| | | | | to the Nurnberg | | | | | mark) | 64-1/2 | 19 0 | 3 28 1-2851/3053 | | | | | | |1422-- | | | | | Gold gulden of | | | | | King Sigismund (68| | | | | to the Nurnberg | | | | | mark) | 66-1/2 | 22 6 | 3 59 1-8049/3052 | | | | | | |1428 and 1429-- | | | | | Gold gulden of | | | | | Emperor Sigismund | | | | | (confirmed at | | | | | Frankfort and | | | | | Nurnberg, 1433, | | | | | 1438, and 1442) | 68 | 19 0 | 3 17 3-18/1207 | | | | | | |1438-- | | | | | Gold gulden of the | | | | | Elector of Mainz, | 67 | 19 0 | 3 20 2-3886/4757 | | | | | | |1442-- | | | | | Gold gulden of | | | | | Emperor Frederick | | | | | IV. | 72 | 19 0 | 3 6 3-14/213 | | | | | | |1477-- | | | | | Gold gulden as | | | | | adopted by | | | | | agreement of | | | | | several Electoral | | | | | Princes at | {68-2/3 | 19 0 | 3 15 3-2421/7313 | | Frankfort | {69-1/3 | 18 10 | 3 12 0-3669/3692 | | | | | | |1495 and 1497-- | | | | | Gold gulden as | | | | | adopted at Worms, | | | | | and in 1498 at | | | | | Lindau and | | | | | Freiburg | 71-1/3 | 18 6 | 3 3 2-3104/15194| | | | | | |1506-- | | | | | Gold gulden as by | | | | | treaty between | | | | | Bamberg, Wurzburg,| | | | | and Brandenburg | 71-1/3 | 18 6 | 3 6 0-132/7597 | | | |(and 3 6 of silver)| | | | | | | |1509-- | | | | | Gold gulden | | | | | adopted by the | | | | | Reichstag at | | | | | Frankfort | 71-1/3 | 18 6 | 3 6 1-3185/7597 | | | |(and 4 0 of silver)| | | | | | | |1524-- | | | | | Gold gulden as | | | | | determined by the | | | | | Imperial Mint | | | | | Ordinance of | | | | | Charles V. at | | | | | Esslingen | 89 | 22 0 | 2 54 3-5019/6319 | | | | | | |1551-- | | | | | Gold gulden as | | | | | determined by the | | | | | Imperial Mint | | | | | Ordinance of | | | | | Charles V. at | | | | | Augsburg | 71-1/3 | 18 6 | 3 6 0-3682/7597 | | | |(and 3 8 of silver)| | | | | | | |1559-- | | | | | Gold gulden as | | | | | determined by the | | | | | Imperial Mint | | | | | Ordinance of | | | | | Ferdinand I. | 72 | 18 6 | 3 4 1-2267/3834 | | | |(and 3 8 of silver)| | | | | | | |Gold ducat (ibid.) | 67 | 23-2/3 | (10 = 1 fl. 44 kr.) | +--------------------+---------+---------------------+---------------------+

TABLE OF THE GOLD GULDEN AND DUCAT--_continued._

From 1559 the Tale and Standard remained legally unaltered; the only variations being thenceforward in equivalence or tariff, thus--

Fair of 1585 Set the Rhenish gold gulden and Philipps thaler at 82 kr.

1596 Imperial Commissioners at Frankfort set the gold gulden at 80 kr.

About 1600 Gulden of 1551, of 72 kr., set at 94 kr.

" " 1559, " 60 " " 79 "

1602, April 10 Brandenburg ducat set at 2 fl.

" Philipps thaler and Reichs gold gulden set at 20 batzen.

{Franconia} 1601 and 1602 {Bavaria } ducat, 67 to Cologne mark, 23 carats 8 grs.

{Swabia } 1604 _Ibid._ (_Munz Probations Tag_), gold gulden, 72 to Cologne mark, 18 carats 6 grs. fine.

1623, July 31 Mint Edict of John George, Duke of Saxony, Rhenish gold gulden set at 1 gulden 6 good groschen.

1623 Higher Circles gold gulden = 1 fl. 44 kr.

" " ducat = 2 " 20 "

" August 23 Wurtemberg gold gulden = 1 fl. 44 kr.

" " " ducat = 2 " 20 "

" " 29 Archduke Leopold of Austria set the gold gulden at 1 fl. 52 kr.

" " " " " ducat 2 " 30 "

" October 19 Strasburg gold gulden = 1 fl. 52 kr.

" " " ducat = 2 " 30"

" Electoral Saxony, Philipps or gold gulden = 30 groschen.

" " ducat = 36 "

" Brandenburg gold gulden = 27 groschen.

" " ducat = 38 "

" October 23 Frankfort gold gulden = 1 fl. 44 kr.

" " " ducat = 2 " 24"

" Lower Saxony gold gulden = 26-2/3 groschen (= 1 fl. 40 kr.).

1624 Three Circles (Franconia, Bavaria, Swabia) gold gulden = 1 fl. 50 kr.

" " " " ducat = 2 " 30"

1637 " " " gold gulden tolerated at 2 fl.

" " " " ducat " 3 "

(But to be reduced respectively to 1-1/2 fl. and 2 fl. 24 kr.) 1659 Three Circles gold gulden = 2 fl. 10 kr.

" " ducat = 3 "

1665 " (Franconia, Bavaria, Swabia) ducat = 3 fl.

1669 Three Circles ducat = 3 fl.

" " gold gulden = 2 fl. 20 kr.

1690 In consequence of Leipzig standard, gold gulden = 2 fl. 56 kr.

" " " " ducat = 4 fl.

1695 Austrian ducat = 4 fl.

1736} " gold gulden = 3 "

1738} " ducat = 4 " (but circulating at 4 fl. 15 kr.).

1748 " ducat = 4 fl. 10 kr.

1751, May 2 " Imperial ducat = 4 fl. 10 kr.

" " " Kremnitz " = 4 " 12 "

" " " Other " = 4 " 7-1/2 "

1771, March 23, Austria (Imperial Patent) Kremnitz ducat = 4 gulden 18 kr.

" " Imperial, Bavaria, Salzburg " = 4 " 16 "

" " Holland and others " = 4 " 14 "

1783, Sept. 1, Kremnitz ducat and zecchini = 4 " 22 "

" " Imperial " = 4 " 20 "

" " Holland " = 4 " 18 "

1786, Jan. 12, Imperial ducat = 4 " 30 "

" " Kremnitz Bavarian Salzburg " = 4 " 20 "