The History of Currency, 1252 to 1896Shaw, William Arthur
History
The History of Currency, 1252 to 1896
Shaw, William Arthur
Money -- History
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 Lübeck 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 disbursement 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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