User:Bermicourt/Card games/German monetary history before 1871

de.wiki

German monetary history before 1871 was a complex picture because Germany was not yet a unified country, but a collection of states within the Holy Roman Empire. Even during the Middle Ages an almost unmanageable variety of coins had developed in central Europe. In the Late Middle Ages, agreements between individual towns and cities (such as the Wendish Coinage Treaty (Wendischer Münzverein) for the standardisation and mutual recognition of currencies had already been made in order to eliminate or alleviate the situation. In the 16th century, the imperial minting ordinances tried, sometimes in vain, to bring order to the "coin confusion". Monetary agreements, such as the 1667 Zinna Coinage Treaty and the 1753 Austro-Bavarian Coinage Convention brought regional improvements. Most countries issued their own coins up to 1871, and in some cases up to 1873.

Overview
German coinage was long rooted in the Carolingian monetary system. But from the 12th century onwards, the initially standard denarius or pfennig of the Carolingians, coined from silver, increasingly gave way to regional pfennigs with different weights. This was a consequence of the devolvement of the royal privilege of minting rights (the Münzregal), which was exercised uniformly under the Emperor Charlemagne.

With the expansion of the money economy in the late Middle Ages, in addition to the need for subdivisions of the pfennig, a need for multiple pfennig denominations arose. Typical coin denominations were the:


 * Heller: initially a whole pfennig, from 1385 equal to $1/2$ pfennig, Swabia (Schwäbisch Hall)
 * Scherf: also $1/2$ pfennig, sometimes by cutting up a pfennig coin. Erfurt and other cities.
 * Albus: silver (white!) Denarius/Pfennig, from the middle of the 13th century, Trier and Cologne
 * Schwaren: heavy (=silver bearing) pfennigs, north-west Germany; later a copper coin
 * Rappen: dark pfennig coin from the 13th century with an initial silver content of 0.15 g (see also Rappenmünzbund)
 * Deut or Duit: Copper coin worth 2 pfennigs, 17th and 18th centuries; Northwest Germany, Netherlands
 * Witten: lighter weight 4 Pfennig coin, Northern Germany, from early 14th century; Wendish Coinage Treaty
 * Dreiling, Sechsling: 3 or 6 Pfennig coins, ¼ and ½ Schillings; Northern Germany from the 14th century.

Raw material
From the Middle Ages up to the Modern Era in the area of ​​the Holy Roman Empire the only metals approved for coinage were gold, silver and copper. The material used for gold and silver coins usually consisted of alloys of the two precious metals with copper.

From the beginning of the 17th century, silver alloys were increasingly used for small coins such as pfennigs, kreuzers, half-batzens, groschens and schillings, some of which contained significantly less than 50% silver; see the coin alloy billon. Brass and bronze alloys were used until about the first third of the 19th century for counters, game tokens, other forms of token (for food, receipts, payments, etc.) and for medals, later also for low denomination coins. In the 19th century, almost all pfennig coins were made of pure copper. The high denomination silver coins from the end of the 19th century were an exception. This applies in particular to the pfennigs of the Mark currency of the German Empire ($900/1000$ fine) and the lower value coins of the Austrian Goldkrone currency ($835⁄1000$ fine).

The silver content of coins was traditionally given in lots or loths (sixteenths) and grains ($1⁄18$ of a lot). The carat was the specification for the gold grade. For example, a coin of 15 lot silver had a fineness of $937.5⁄1000$. After the basic unit of German coinage was changed from the Cologne Mark of 16 lots (233.8 g) to the Zollpfund of 500 g in 1856, the fineness was also increasingly specified as parts per thousand (per mille).

Introduction of the Reichstaler (1566)
The Reichsthaler was ordained by the Imperial Minting Ordinance of 1566 and soon became Germany's main currency coin. From 1 Cologne Mark of fine silver, 9 Reichsthalers (to the 9 Thaler standard) were to be minted. The Reichsthaler weighed 29.23 g "gross". With a fineness of $889⁄1000$, the fine weight of a Reichsthaler was 25.98 g.

The majority of the Reichsthalers were minted by the Wettins (Saxony) and Welfs (Brunswick-Lüneburg). The Reichsthaler soon prevailed over the Gulden and Guldiner, even though southern Germany continued to calculate in Gulden.

At the same time, small silver coins called Kreuzers were widespread. The value of the Reichsthaler was initially set at 68 Kreuzers. However, the fineness of the lower value coins fell in the years that followed and so the value of the Reichsthaler soon rose to 72 and finally to 90 Kreuzers.

Finally, the Reichsthaler itself was no longer minted strictly according to the 9 Thaler standard; the fineness of the Reichsthalers in circulation fell and it could no longer serve as a coin standard. In order to mitigate this problem, the idea of ​​the Rechnungsthaler ("accounting thaler") was born. Its standard remained defined by Reich coinage regulations, even if it was no longer minted in this form. In Northern Germany, a ratio of 1 Reichsthaler/Rechnungsthaler = 24 Groschen or 36 Mariengroschen prevailed at times.

Zinna Coinage Treaty (1667/68)
In the 17th century it became clear that the original 9 Thaler standard was no longer tenable in the face of proliferating, divergent coinage systems. However, the monetary systems that emerged not only deviated from the provisions of the imperial monetary system, but also differed from one another. In order to counteract this situation, Electoral Brandenburg and the Electorate of Saxony concluded the Zinna Coinage Treaty in 1667, which the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg also joined the following year. The Zinna standard was agreed at $10 1⁄2$ Thalers and was used from 1668 for coinage of the participating states.

Leipzig Coinage Convention (1690)
However, there were further coin debasements. Inferior Thalers also pushed out those based on the Zinnaer standard (Gresham's law). The Electorate of Brandenburg, which was poor in silver, had been minting the new two-thirds Thaler (Gulden) of at 18 coins to the fine mark since 1687. This corresponded to a 12 Thaler standard. $1/6$ and $1/3$ Thalers were also minted to the 12 Thaler standard. As a result, the parties to the Zinna treaty came together again and in 1690 in Leipzig passed a new coin convention based on this 12 Thaler standard. Minting according to the so-called "Leipzig standard" was carried out not only in silver-rich Saxony and Brunswick-Lüneburg, but almost throughout the rest of the German states in the Holy Roman Empire.

Values of gold and silver coins based on the Leipzig Convention
The values of the higher denomination gold and silver coins are given in the table below in the Rhenish (accounting) Gulden (fl.) worth 60 Kreuzers (kr.):

Graumann's coin reform in Prussia (1750)
In the middle of the 18th century, many countries could hardly afford to mint the new $2/3$ Thaler to the Leipzig standard. Prussia, which emerged from Brandenburg, went ahead with another new definition of a coin standard. The Prussian Director General of Minting (Generalmünzdirektor), Johann Philipp Graumann, developed a 14 Thaler standard, which formed the basis of Prussian coinage until the 19th century. According to this, 14 Reichsthalers (Graumann standard) were to be struck from 1 Cologne Mark of fine silver (233.856 g).

Emperor Frederick II had the designation "Reichsthaler" stamped on the new coins. The coin contained 16.704 g of fine silver and effectively remained the Prussian currency coin until 1907.

This "Prussian Thaler" was first divided into 24 Guter Groschen ("good groschens") or 288 Pfennigs. In 1821, there was a reform of the lower denomination coins: 1 Thaler to Graumann's standard was now divided into 30 silver groschens or 360 pfennings.

In the 18th century, Graumann's standard was common throughout northern and central Germany. With a slight deviation (see Vienna Mint Treaty), it remained in Germany until 1907 in the form of the single Thaler coins with a nominal value of three Marks that had been in circulation until then. The Prussian Reichstaler served as a model for the creation of the last German and Austrian Thaler, the Vereinsthaler of the German Customs Union (Deutscher Zollverein, see below).

Convention standard (1750)
Austria bucked the trend towards increasingly less valuable Reichsthalers. In 1750, it introduced a 20 Gulden standard, whereby 10 Thalers were to be minted from the Cologne Mark. All coins down to the Groschen were to be minted to this standard.

Because it arose from agreement with Bavaria in September 1753, the coin standard and the Thaler minted in accordance with it were both named after the convention, the latter being called a Conventionsthaler. Because of the disproportionate valuation of the lower denomination coins circulating in southern Germany, a year later Bavaria valued the Conventionthaler at 144 kreuzers instead of 120 kreuzers. In this modified form (actually a 24 Gulden standard) the (lighter) Convention standard spread in southern and western Germany. Central German and some northern German mints (Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Hildesheim, Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Oldenburg) also adopted it. In practice, the Convention standard was adopted in large parts of the Empire, with the exception of Prussia, where minting was based on the Graumann standard, as well as the mint circle of the Hanseatic cities (Bremen, Hamburg, Lübeck), Schleswig-Holstein and parts of Mecklenburg.

Values ​​of gold and silver coins based on the Convention standard
The values of the higher denomination gold and silver coins are given in the table below in the Rhenish (accounting) Gulden (fl.) worth 60 Kreuzers (kr.):

Munich (1837) and Dresden (1838) Coinage Treaties


In the Munich Coinage Treaty of 1837, the member states of the German Customs Union (Deutscher Zollverein) who had formed the South German Coinage Union had their 24½ Gulden standard in a clear ratio (1$3/4$ : 1) to the standard of the Prussian 14 Thaler standard and at the same time standard 3 and 6 Kreuzer coins made of a billon alloy were introduced that were valid in each of the member states. At the Coinage Congress in Dresden in 1838, this created the conditions for creating a common currency coin as Vereinsgeld ("Union currency") for all members of the Customs Union a year later.

From the Prussian fine Mark, 7 Union coins (Vereinsmünzen) were struck, each worth "2 Thalers (north German) = 3$1/2$ Gulden (southern German)". This common Union coin had to be minted to standard guidelines and was valid in all member states. With a fineness of $900⁄1000$, the coin weighed around 37.11 g, contained 33.408 g of silver and had a diameter of 41 mm. This coin, valued at 2 Thalers or 3$1/2$ Gulden, was of considerable value and therefore played hardly any role in payment transactions, not least due to the small number of coins actually minted. This Union coin had more of a symbolic value. In the population it was called Champagnethaler because it is said to have corresponded to the value of a bottle of champagne. The Vereinsthaler as a 1 Thaler coin, on the other hand, became more and more popular. Eventually it also dominated the circulation of money in the Gulden area.

Another result of the treaty was the official transition in Saxony to the Prussian 14 Thaler standard, whereby 1 Thaler = 30 Neugroschen; 1 Neugroschen = 10 (Neu)pfennigs. In most states, however, a duodecimal division (into 12 pfennigs or pfennings) was preserved.

All the German states eventually joined the Dresden Mint Treaty, with the exception of Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Mecklenburg-Schwerin. The two Mecklenburgs nevertheless adopted the Prussian 14 Thaler standard in 1848. In Hamburg and Lübeck the Prussian Thaler became the main circulation coin in the mid-19th century, leading to its official legalization in 1856.

In addition, the coinage treaty provided for the exchange of fractional coins into fully-fledged currency money. However, this only applied from a certain sum in small change coins. On the other hand, however, no one had to accept small coins up to the face value of the smallest currency coin, for example in Prussia up to the $1/4$ Thaler piece. Worn out coins had to be taken back by the state that minted them at full market value. At this time, Prussia and many other states were already introducing for the payment of taxes to the state, both private and commericial, a "compulsory rate" for (state) banknotes within the overall debt total, which was intended to encourage the introduction of certain types of paper money because of the public debt. Otherwise, fines of the order of 1 Groschen per Thaler were due, even though currency or face value coins were actually an unlimited means of payment.


 * See also Dicke Emma, a Union double Thaler from Waldeck and Pyrmont minted under Princess Emma of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-Hoym.