Chapter 18

1⁄2-Batzen,7loth fine,210to the mark.Kreutzer,5"300"3-Heller piece,31⁄2"560"Pfennige,3"720"

To this system the Lower Circles acceded, in the same year 1623, after an ineffectual attempt to enforce the interim standard of 1596, which had set the Reichs thaler at 21 batzen or 84 kreutzers.

From this united action of the Upper and Lower Circles Saxony stood apart, following quite a different course. While elsewhere the thaler was raised, here they lowered it to its old equivalence of 24 groschen. In actual practice, however, the step proved only half effective, as the depreciated thaler was persistently minted. There resulted accordingly, in Saxony, a double system of "good" and "bad" money, with a difference of something like 25 per cent. between them. To increase the confusion there was for a time a difference between the practice of Lower Saxony and Electoral Saxony. The former, Lower Saxony, had in 1610 adopted the following system:—

Finding it impossible to maintain this system, they altered it in 1617, and finally in 1622 conformed with Higher Saxony, setting the Reichs thaler at 24 silver groschens.

As settled in this and the following year, the system of Electoral and Lower Saxony was as follows:—

Contemporaneously (1623), the Brandenburg system was as follows:—

Through the remaining period of the Thirty Years' War very little is on record with regard to the German Mint system. The closing period of the strife was marked by such complaints as to excess of depreciated small specie as had prevailed in 1620, bringing with it a further enhancement of the price of the larger silver specie. In 1665, accordingly, the three Higher Circles, Franconia, Bavaria, and Swabia met together. They found on a trial that the mark of fine silver was selling commercially at from 14 florins 15 kreutzers to 14 florins 20 kreutzers, and that it was impossible to mint the larger silver specie unless the Reichs thaler were set at 96 kreutzers. This would raise the mark of fine silver to 14 florins 24 kreutzers. At the same time it was resolved to declare the ducat at 3 florins (mark of fine gold = 203 florins 49 kreutzers, 331⁄71pfennige), the ratio being accordingly changed from 15 to 141⁄8.

In 1667 this scheme was provisionally adoptedin comitiis. From this scheme Saxony and Brandenburg held off, maintaining that the advance of the Reichs thaler was not sufficient. They accordingly, in the same year, adopted the so-calledZinnaischestandard, setting the Reichs thaler at 1 florin 45 kreutzers (105 kreutzers), equal to 18 good groschens (mark of fine silver = 101⁄2thalers, or 15 florins 45 kreutzers).

The enactment of this system gave rise to a new species of heavy silver coins:—

Two years later, 1669, the three Higher Circles determined, as a measure of protection to their gold, to alter the ratio, and for that purpose to reduce the thaler from 96 to 90 kreutzers again, while leaving the ducat = 3 florins, and the gold gulden = 2 florins 20 kreutzers.

The divisional coins were to be minted on a graduated and enhanced standard. Thus—

There were thus three contemporary systems in Germany in 1670—

The three Upper Circles, however, could not maintain their last enacted order. In spite of its enactment, the Reichs thaler rose again to 96 kreutzers, and the ducat to 3 florins 12 kreutzers.

The confusion and general harm which resulted has been referred to in the text (p.199), and it is to be regarded simply as a stop-gap at any cost that the measure proposed by the Three Circles of fixing the thaler at 90 kreutzers was carried through the Reichstag of 1680.

From this system, however, the Emperor, with Bavaria and Salzburg, stood apart, putting the Reichs thaler at 96 kreutzers; and ten years later, 1690, Saxony, Brandenburg, and Brunswick and Lüneburg established again a distinct system—the well-known Leipzig standard.

By this system the Reichs thaler was set at 120 kreutzers or 2 florins (mark of fine silver = 12 thalers 18 gulden).

In a few years this valuation of the thaler prevailed all over the Empire. Sweden acceded to it in 1690, with Bremen and Pomerania, Mainz, Treves, the Palatinate, and Frankfort, and three years later the Higher Circles followed suite. Contemporaneously the gold gulden was advanced to 2 florins 56 kreutzers.

Although the Emperor subsequently joined in the recognition of the Leipzig standard, it did not remain effective in actual practice, and while no further advance of the thaler was officially recognised, the lower denominations were again depreciated by the Mint competition of the various states, 10-kreutzer pieces being minted on a standard of 201⁄3to 211⁄3gulden to the mark fine. In 1736 the question of a standard was again brought before the Reichstag; and on the 10th September 1738 it was resolved to adopt the Leipzig standard for the Empire,with the Reichs thaler = 2 florins, ducat = 4 florins, gold gulden = 3 florins; while, for the divisional coins, a basis of fine mark silver = 132⁄3thaler was enacted.

This system, if it endured at all, did so only for a couple of years. The outbreak of the war of the Austrian Succession brought with it a new period of conflicting depreciations, and at the close Austria took a decisive step. Without taking any measure to secure the co-operation of the Circles, or any part of the Empire, the Emperor FrancisI.adopted the 20-gulden standard (the mark of fine silver = 131⁄3Reichs thalers = 20 guldens). It was at once adopted in Hungary and Bohemia, the territories of Maria Theresa.

Frederick Augustus, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, was the first to adopt this Austrian standard, at Dresden in 1750, though with a very slight variation (putting the mark of fine silver at 133⁄8Reichs thalers instead of 131⁄3). In 1753 Bavaria also acceded to the 20-gulden standard, after a brief attempt (1747-1753) at the erection of a 24-gulden standard, and in the following year the Austrian system was adopted by Brandenburg-Anspach, Bayreuth, Würzburg, and Nürnberg.

The Convention of Vienna (21st September 1753) which formally established this Austrian or Convention standard (20-gulden system), prescribed as follows:—

1. Gold—

Mark of fine gold = 283 fl. 5 kr. 447⁄74pf. Chief coin = Reichs ducat, 67 to the mark (Cologne mark), 23 kr. 8 grs. fine (= 6767⁄71to the mark of fine gold), to = 4 fl. 10 kr.; the Holland and other ducats then current in Germany being tariffed at 4 fl. 71⁄2kr.

2. Silver—

Mark of fine silver = 20 guldens for all manner of silver coins down to the groschen or 3-kreutzer piece (ratio of silver to gold 1:1411⁄21).

The silver coins authorised were—

1. Thaler (specie or convention thaler = 2 fl.), 10 to the mark, 131⁄3loth fine.2. Gulden (or1⁄2-specie thaler), 20 to the mark, 131⁄3loth fine.3. 30-kreutzer piece (1⁄2-gulden or1⁄4-specie thaler), 40 to the mark, 131⁄3loth fine.4. 17-kreutzer piece, 7010⁄17to the mark, 82⁄3loth fine (only for Austria).5. 7-kreutzer piece, 1713⁄7to the mark, 613⁄18loth fine (only for Austria).6. 20-kreutzer piece, 60 to the mark, 91⁄3loth fine.7. 10-kreutzer piece, 120 to the mark, 8 loth fine.8. Groschen or 3-kreutzer piece, 400 to the mark, 51⁄2loth fine.

1. Thaler (specie or convention thaler = 2 fl.), 10 to the mark, 131⁄3loth fine.

2. Gulden (or1⁄2-specie thaler), 20 to the mark, 131⁄3loth fine.

3. 30-kreutzer piece (1⁄2-gulden or1⁄4-specie thaler), 40 to the mark, 131⁄3loth fine.

4. 17-kreutzer piece, 7010⁄17to the mark, 82⁄3loth fine (only for Austria).

5. 7-kreutzer piece, 1713⁄7to the mark, 613⁄18loth fine (only for Austria).

6. 20-kreutzer piece, 60 to the mark, 91⁄3loth fine.

7. 10-kreutzer piece, 120 to the mark, 8 loth fine.

8. Groschen or 3-kreutzer piece, 400 to the mark, 51⁄2loth fine.

For the lowest denomination of divisional coins, half-groschen, kreutzer, and pfennige, quite varying standards were permitted, according to the piece or locality, namely, from 203⁄4to 33 guldens to the Koln mark.

For tolerated coin the following tariff was fixed:—

GOLD

All other gold coins to be taken as bullion at a value of 280 fl. for the Cologne mark of fine gold. All silver species of other states below the value of1⁄2florin forbidden.

Such was the Convention System or Standard, which, by the accession of the Electoral Palatinate, and of Salzburg might be practically regarded as the Imperial system.

This Convention system, and these Convention or specie thaler and other coins, remained the Mint system of Austria until modern times.

The changes which were made in the Austrian system by the Vienna Convention of 1857 have been already detailed (see text, pp.209-12).

Ten years later Austria withdrew from this monetary treaty (in accordance with the terms of the treaty of Berlin, 13th June 1867), with the intention of acceding to the contemplated French currency treaty of 31st July 1867. She ceased the coining of German gold crowns and half-crowns, and instead minted 4 and 1-ducat pieces. From 1870 onwards she coined, in conjunction with Hungary, 8 and 4-florin gold pieces, the former 771⁄2to the pound, .900 fine.

By a decree of 6th November 1870, the 8-florin gold piece was tariffed at 8.10 florin. At this it was made legal tender, on the basis of the French ratio of 151⁄2; but it was practically nothing more than commercial money, like the precedingcrownsandhalf-crownsof the convention of 1857. The standard of Austria remained nominally the silver florin of the convention of 1857, although in actual practice the currency was paper. In March 1879 the Austrian and Hungarian Mints were closed to the coinage of silver on private account, preparatory to a reorganisation of the Austrian monetary system on a gold basis. This reform was decided on in 1892, and briefly prescribed as follows:—

The monetary unit is the krone or crown = 2 florins; but to be minted in 10 and 20-crown pieces, 1 kilogramme pure gold = 3280 crowns, .900 fine. The crown is divided into 100 hellers.

For the purpose of basing the new system on gold, aratio between the old silver and the new gold standard of 1:18.22 was adopted, the existing florin being declared = 2 francs 10 cents.

Silver is fractional money only, the old florins passing as 2 crowns.

From the Convention or 20-gulden system (the old Austrian system) sprang the accompanying system, the 24-gulden standard, which was nothing but the 20-gulden or Austrian standard under another name. Very soon after the establishment of the Convention standard, the Elector of Bavaria perceived or concluded that the continuance of that standard in his dominions would produce disorders so long as the other circles did not accede to the convention. He accordingly arrested the execution of the convention in his territories, and adopted a provisional arrangement. At the end, however, of a long correspondence with the Austrian state (Maria Theresa), an agreement was made that he should conform his coins in standard and weight to the convention system, but should be permitted to tariff them at one-fifth higher rate, puttingi.e.the specie thaler not at 2 florins but at 2 florins 24 kr., and so on (the mark of silver being consequently worth 24 guldens, instead of, as in the Austrian or Convention system, 20 guldens).

This was the origin of the 24-gulden standard, which gradually spread over the whole of South Germany, with the exception of Austria. The three Upper Circles acceded in 1761, Salzburg in 1765, and in the following year theRhenish powers, Mainz, Treves, the Palatinate, Hesse-Darmstadt, and Frankfort.

From this 24-gulden standard sprang towards the close of the eighteenth century a later development, due to the circulation of the kronen thaler or Brabant thaler, which, from 1755 onwards, Austria minted for her Netherland possessions. The Rhenish provinces drove this piece above its Mint rate, setting it at 2 florins 42 kreutzers, although in the 24-gulden standard its value was only 2 florins 3810⁄19kreutzers. This implied a standard of 246⁄11guldens to the mark of fine silver, and gradually, about the beginning of the present century, Bavaria, Würtemberg, and Nassau minted convention thalers on the same footing. Baden, Hesse, and Saxe-Coburg followed suit in their minting of kronen thalers until, by the Mint Convention of the South German states in 1837, the new standard (the 241⁄2-gulden standard) was formally recognised as the South German standard. In this convention Austria had no part.

The standard here detailed, the 241⁄2-gulden or South German standard, was assimilated to the Prussian system in the Dresden Convention, 1838 (see text, p.205), and in that connection remained intact until the developments of modern times detailed in the text, p.215.

The Prussian monetary system, as a separate identity, took its rise in that same period which witnessed the independent action of Austria, above detailed. Its builder was Frederick the Great, who, for this purpose, called in the advice of a Dutch merchant, Philip Graumann. It is tothis latter that is due the introduction in 1750 of the 21-gulden or 14-thaler standard, otherwise known as the Graumann standard.

Thaler = 101⁄2to the mark, 12 loth fine (mark of fine silver therefore = 14 thalers or 21 guldens).Thaler = 24 groschens = 288 pfennige (24 × 12).Groschen and1⁄2-groschen minted as divisional coins (=1⁄24and1⁄48thaler) of billon.

Thaler = 101⁄2to the mark, 12 loth fine (mark of fine silver therefore = 14 thalers or 21 guldens).

Thaler = 24 groschens = 288 pfennige (24 × 12).

Groschen and1⁄2-groschen minted as divisional coins (=1⁄24and1⁄48thaler) of billon.

After the temporary debasement during the Seven Years' War, the Graumann standard was re-established in 1764, but with two differences.

1. The minting of1⁄2and1⁄4-thaler pieces of 12 loth silver was ordered to cease from 1766, and to be replaced from 1764 by—

2. The billon divisional money (minted primarily for the Provincial States of Prussia) was greatly increased in the amount of its issue, but depreciated in standard on a varying scale according to the districts intended, Silesia, Cleves, etc., reaching in some cases even to an 18-thaler standard. Up to 1772 there was issued in these depreciated single and double-groschen pieces an amount equal to 8,979,189 thalers. Subsequently, the standard of divisional money was reduced to 21 thalers, and at this rate, up to the death of Frederick in 1786, there were issued in 6-pfennige and other pieces 12,586,863 thalers' worth. From this time onward, up to the decrying of this depreciated divisional money at the peace of Tilsit, there was minted a matter of 29,628,807 thaler worth.

The total, therefore, was 42,215,670 thalers; the pure silver content of which was only 28,243,780 thalers.

By the publicandum of 4th May 1808, and the edict of 13th December 1811, the value of this mass was reduced, the coins being set at from two-thirds to four-sevenths of their normal value, so that—

but it was not till the law of 30th September 1821 that a recoinage could be accomplished.

The provisions of this law of 1821 were as follows:—

1. Gold—

Friedrichs d'or as hitherto, viz. 35 to the mark = 5 thalers.

4. Silver—

Prussian thaler as before, 101⁄2to the mark gross (= 14 to the mark fine).7. Thaler to be subdivided into 30 groschens 12 pfennige; the latter tenderable only up to1⁄6thaler.8. Silver groschen = 1062⁄3to the mark,2⁄9silver (= 16 thalers to the mark fine).

Prussian thaler as before, 101⁄2to the mark gross (= 14 to the mark fine).

7. Thaler to be subdivided into 30 groschens 12 pfennige; the latter tenderable only up to1⁄6thaler.

8. Silver groschen = 1062⁄3to the mark,2⁄9silver (= 16 thalers to the mark fine).

By the law of 1821, this standard came into operation in 1626, and it remained the standard for Prussia and her provinces until the developments in modern times, specified in the text, p.215.

At the convention of Dresden, 30th July 1838, the Prussian 14-thaler or 21-gulden standard was adopted, along with the South German or 241⁄2-gulden standard as the standard of the German Zollverein.

Subsequent to that date the Prussian system wasadopted by Hanover, Brunswick, Oldenburg, Mecklenburg, Waldeck, Lippe, etc.

PRUSSIAN MINTINGS FROM THE REFORM OF 1809 TO THE END OF 1836.Thalerpieces70,850,5601⁄6""16,942,30787,792,867Full-weighted silver previously in currency95,709,282Total of full-weighted silver183,502,149One-third pieces, minted 1809-11237,151Billon divisional money, minted 1821-362,949,760Thalers186,689,060Withdrawn since 1809-36—1⁄5-thalerpieces319,522thalers1⁄12""135,504"1⁄15""428,256"883,282185,805,778

PRUSSIAN MINTINGS FROM THE REFORM OF 1809 TO THE END OF 1836.

The gold coinage had, in Prussia, little relativity to the silver.

From 1750 this state minted double, single, and half-pistoles, under the name, Friedrichs d'or, on the basis of 35 to the mark, 213⁄4carats fine, for the single piece.

From 1770 the standard was lowered to 212⁄3carats, and at this it was confirmed by the law of September 1821.

The ascertained mintings of these were as follows:—

But long before 1840 almost the whole of this amount had disappeared or been melted down.

In state payments the Friedrich d'or was taken at 5 thalers, but in ordinary commerce up to 1783 they were taken at 51⁄4thalers, a tariff which gradually rose to 51⁄3and 51⁄2thalers. The purchases of gold which the Bank of England made in 1816, in order to its resumption of cash payments, drove the pistole or Friedrich d'or up to 53⁄4thalers, and it was not for ten years that it fell back to 52⁄3thalers.

Although paid by Government at this latter, and so continued till the Mint Convention of 1853, it was only as a mercantile commodity. The only legal standard and tender in Prussia was silver (the silver thaler), to which gold was varyingly ratable, according to market fluctuations.

The Prussian system thus described remained in force until the Vienna coinage treaty of 24th January 1857, the details of which have been already stated in the text. The resolutions of that treaty were adopted by the Prussian Mint law of 4th May 1857, as follows:—

1. The Prussian pound of 500 grms., decimally divided, is substituted for the previous standard of 233.865 grms.

2-6. The thaler continues the regular silver coin of the country—

Thirty thalers to the pound of pure silver, .900 fine.

Thus the 30-thaler standard to take the place of the old 14-thaler standard, but the two to be treated as the same.

The thaler to be coinable as a convention thaler or Vereins thaler; thaler to be subdivided into 30 groschens, at 12 pfennige.

7-8. Divisional coin limited in tender to1⁄6thaler as before, and both minted on a 341⁄2-thaler standard.

11. Gold commercial coins shall be coined under the names of "crown" and "half-crown," in the form and with the attribution of confederation coins, viz.—

1. Crown,1⁄50of a pound of fine gold (.900 fine).2. Half-crown,1⁄100" "

These coins shall be the special gold coins of the country, and other gold pieces shall not henceforth be coined.

14. The silver value of the gold coinage shall be entirely fixed by the relation of the supply to the demand, and no one is bound to take gold in the place of the legal silver value of the country.

16. Our Finance Minister is empowered to settle the price at which the crown and the half-crown shall be taken into our pay offices.

The established rate, as well as the permission to receive crowns and half-crowns instead of silver coins in our offices, may at any time be revoked or restricted by the publication of a proclamation by our Finance Minister.

19. Our Minister of State is also authorised to fix the value above which foreign gold and silver coins must not be offered or given in payment in ordinary transactions.

The subsequent course of events and the existing Prussian (Imperial German) system have been already specified (see text, p.215).

The origin of the common Mint standard of Lübeck and Hamburg was the division of the mark into 16schillingen, and each schilling into 12 pfennige. The metal mark and the Mint mark soon parted company, and by the time of the treaty of 1255 the two states agreed to mint the mark of fine silver into 38 schillingen 10 pfennige (= 2 marks 6 schillingen 10 pfennige).

The Wendish standard was established by the adoption in 1325 of the Hamburg-Lübeck treaty by Wismar and Lüneburg.

In 1433 this Wendish standard adopted the Cologne mark as its weight basis.

COURSE OF DEPRECIATION OF THE STANDARD.Mks.Sch.Pf.1226—The markof fine silvercoined into2201255"""2951293"""2981305"""21551325"""3091353"""310111375"""4301398"""41521403"""51111411"""51251430"""8801450"""91221461"""118101506"""1280

COURSE OF DEPRECIATION OF THE STANDARD.

The Mint Union of the Wendish states continued until the beginning of the seventeenth century, when it expired unperceived. The experience of Hamburg in theKipper und Wipper Zeit, with its resultant establishment of the Hamburg Bank, has been already referred to.

In 1667 Hamburg freely joined theZinnaischestandard, according to which the mark of fine silver was coined into101⁄2thalers (= 31 marks 8 schillingen,Hamburger courant). She, however, hesitated to follow the German system in its change over to the Leipzig standard in 1690, and after an interim period of weltering disorder, during which the standard varied from 30 marks to 34 marks 8 schillingen per mark fine of silver, the State adopted in 1725 the so-called Lübeck standard (1 mark fine = 34 marks), as the Hamburger courant.

This standard had existed in Holstein from 1693. In 1788 and 1789 long and serious debates were held in Hamburg on the question of the substitution of a lighter (or lower) standard. And seventy years later a change in such direction had practically effected itself, although not legislatively recognised. By 1850 the actual currency of the state consisted mostly of silver coins of the Prussian (or 14-thaler) standard, circulating at an equivalence of 1 thaler = 21⁄2marks Hamburger courant (= 40 schillingen), an equivalence implying a standard of 35 marks courant to the mark of fine silver.

Legally, however, the 34-marks standard remained in force until the coalescence of the free state of Hamburg with the new imperial German system in our own days.

The question of the agio of theHamburg bancosystem belongs rather to the history of banking.

In brief résumé, 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 Münz ordnung of FerdinandI., mark of fine silver = 8 thalers. Altered in 1622, so that 9 thalers 2 grs. = 1 mark fine silver.

2. TheZinnaischestandard, agreed upon by Saxony and Brandenburg at Zinna, 1667, 1 mark fine silver = 101⁄2thaler = 153⁄4guldens.

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 241⁄2, or South German standard (see above, p.378), 1 mark fine silver = 241⁄2guldens.

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 244⁄5-gulden standard. It was this system which called into being the 241⁄2-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, 204⁄55guldens = 1321⁄55thalers = 1 mark fine silver. The standard was, therefore,4⁄11lighter 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 = 1595⁄127gulden giro (100 gulden giro = 127 gulden of the convention standard). This system was displaced by the introduction of the 241⁄2-gulden standard.

11. The Lübeck courant (or Hamburg courant, as described above), the mark of fine silver = 111⁄3thaler, or 34 marks.

12. Hamburg banco, the system of reckoning of the Hamburg Bank. From 1790 the bank reckoned the mark of fine silver = 95⁄24thaler-banco, or 275⁄8mark-banco. The issue rate was, however, 91⁄4thaler, or 273⁄4mark-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 273⁄4marks (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 = 119⁄16thaler, or 3411⁄16marks.

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, 231⁄2-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-carat6 grs. and a 23-carat 8 grs. standard. Baden struck ducats 22 carat 6 grs. fine, 63.697 to the mark.

2. ThePistolestandard (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 351⁄6to the mark, 211⁄2carats fine, though with considerable variations (e.g.the Saxonaugust d'or, 35 to the mark, 21 carats 8 grs. fine. In Bremen this was the legal currency, thelouis d'orbeing 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 52⁄3thalers, 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, 181⁄2carat 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.Year.Tale to the Cologne Mark.Standard.Value of the Piece as expressed in Coin of the 20-Florin Standard.Kar.Grs.Fl.Kr.Pfge.1252—Florentine florin or gold gulden (64 to the Florence mark)443⁄82406223405⁄29111371—Gold gulden of Cune, Archbishop of Treves, Wenceslaus of Bohemia66230462434⁄781(and 10 of silver)1386 and 1399—Gold gulden of the Rhenish Princes. Adopted by RupertII.in 14026622641185⁄781(and 16 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)662203553517⁄7211419—Gold Gulden of Elector Frederick of Brandenburg (66 to the Nürnberg mark)641⁄219032812851⁄30531422—Gold gulden of King Sigismund (68 to the Nürnberg mark)661⁄222635918049⁄30521428 and 1429—Gold gulden of Emperor Sigismund (confirmed at Frankfort and Nürnberg, 1433, 1438, and 1442)68190317318⁄12071438—Gold gulden of the Elector of Mainz,6719032023886⁄47571442—Gold gulden of Emperor FrederickIV.7219036314⁄2131477—Gold gulden as adopted by agreement of several Electoral Princes at Frankfort682⁄319031532421⁄7313691⁄3181031203669⁄36921495 and 1497—Gold gulden as adopted at Worms, and in 1498 at Lindau and Freiburg711⁄31863323104⁄151941506—Gold gulden as by treaty between Bamberg, Würzburg, and Brandenburg711⁄3186360132⁄7597(and 36 of silver)1509—Gold gulden adopted by the Reichstag at Frankfort711⁄31863613185⁄7597(and 40 of silver)1524—Gold gulden as determined by the Imperial Mint Ordinance of CharlesV.at Esslingen8922025435019⁄63191551—Gold gulden as determined by the Imperial Mint Ordinance of CharlesV.at Augsburg711⁄31863603682⁄7597(and 38 of silver)1559—Gold gulden as determined by the Imperial Mint Ordinance of FerdinandI.721863412267⁄3834(and 38 of silver)Gold ducat (ibid.)67232⁄3(10 = 1 fl. 44 kr.)

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

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