The Friedrich d'or was a Prussian gold coin (pistole) nominally worth 5 silver Prussian thalers. It was subsequently copied by other North German states under their own rulers' names (August-, Friedrich-August-, Christian d'or) and valued at 4.8-5 silver North German thalers.
It was used from 1741 to 1855 as a regularly-issued gold trade coin at this time, and was traded at a small premium or discount to its face value of five thalers in silver standard currency (silberkurantgeld) used in the stock exchanges and elsewhere. Around 1780, for example, the Saxon August d'or was quoted at 116 to 120 groschen sächsischen silberkurantgeldes (4.83 to 5 thalers, Saxon silver currency), with a maximum discount of 4 groschen (0.17 thaler). In the 19th century it usually had a low premium.
Prussian purchase contracts or bonds payable in 5-thaler gold pistoles (rather than silver currency) were noted as payable in "XX thalers, preußisch Courant" or "Friedrich d'or".
Modelled on the Spanish doubloon and French Louis d'or, the forerunner of the Friedrich d'or was the Wilhelm d'or. It was first minted in 1741 by Frederick II. It was continued by his successors Frederick William II, Frederick William III and Frederick William IV, until 1855. From 1747 a double Friedrich d'or was minted, and a half Friedrich d'or from 1749. Its fine weight sank in 1770 from 6.05 to 6.03 grams.
The Friedrich d'or pistole of 5 thalers was issued when the ratio of gold to silver price dropped from 15 to 14.5 in the first half of the 18th century, making it cheaper to repay thaler-denominated obligations in gold. At 6.05 g fine gold per pistole, each thaler was worth 1.21g fine gold & 1.21 x14.5 = 17.545 g fine silver, cheaper than the prevailing standard of 19.488 g fine silver. Even at the pistole's lower value of 4.8 thalers, the thaler's silver equivalent of 18.3 g is still below the standard.
What followed was the North German thaler's silver standard lowered after 1750 to 131⁄3 per Cologne Mark, or 17.539 g fine silver (in Prussia, 14 per Mark or 16.704 g). When the gold-silver ratio rose again, the pistole then traded at 5 thalers plus an agio or premium. The pistole's standard varied slightly; at best 35 to a Cologne Mark of gold 130/144 fine, or 6.032 g fine gold; at worst 351⁄6 to a Mark 129/144 fine, or 5.957 g fine gold.
Only Bremen stayed on the Thaler Gold standard of 5 thalers per pistole until German Reunification in 1871.
Appearance
On the obverse of the Friedrich d'or was the king's head, and on the reverse was an eagle standing on its shield.
A thaler is one of the large silver coins minted in the states and territories of the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburg monarchy during the Early Modern period. A thaler size silver coin has a diameter of about 40 mm and a weight of about 25 to 30 grams. The word is shortened from Joachimsthaler, the original thaler coin minted in Joachimstal, Bohemia, from 1520.
The 'pfennig' or penny is a former German coin or note, which was the official currency from the 9th century until the introduction of the euro in 2002. While a valuable coin during the Middle Ages, it lost its value through the years and was the minor coin of the Mark currencies in the German Reich, West and East Germany, and the reunified Germany until the introduction of the euro. Pfennig was also the name of the subunit of the Danzig mark (1922–1923) and the Danzig gulden (1923–1939) in the Free City of Danzig.
The German mark was the currency of the German Empire, which spanned from 1871 to 1918. The mark was paired with the minor unit of the pfennig (₰); 100 pfennigs were equivalent to 1 mark. The mark was on the gold standard from 1871–1914, but like most nations during World War I, the German Empire removed the gold backing in August 1914, and gold and silver coins ceased to circulate.
The doubloon was a two-escudo gold coin worth approximately $4 or 32 reales, and weighing 6.766 grams of 22-karat gold . Doubloons were minted in Spain and the viceroyalties of New Spain, Peru, and Nueva Granada. As the Spanish escudo succeeded the heavier gold excelente as the standard Spanish gold coin, the doubloon therefore succeeded the doble excelente or double-ducat denomination.
Pistole is the French name given to a Spanish gold coin in use from 1537; it was a doubloon or double escudo, the gold unit. The name was also given to the Louis d'Or of Louis XIII of France, and to other European gold coins of about the value of the Spanish coin. One pistole was worth approximately ten livres or three écus, but higher figures are also seen. The derivation is uncertain; the term may come from the Czech píšťala, or from the Italian town of Pistoia; either way, it was originally spelled pistolet and originated in military slang, and probably has the same root as pistol.
The Vereinsthaler was a standard silver coin used in most German states and the Austrian Empire in the years before German unification.
The Conventionstaler or Konventionstaler, was a standard silver coin in the Austrian Empire and the southern German states of the Holy Roman Empire from the mid-18th to early 19th-centuries. Its most famous example is the Maria Theresa thaler which is still minted today. The Conventionsgulden was equivalent to a 1⁄2Conventionsthaler.
The Reichsthaler, or more specifically the Reichsthaler specie, was a standard thaler silver coin introduced by the Holy Roman Empire in 1566 for use in all German states, minted in various versions for the next 300 years, and containing 25–26 grams fine silver.
The florin was the currency of the lands of the House of Habsburg between 1754 and 1892, when it was replaced by the Austro-Hungarian crown as part of the introduction of the gold standard. In Austria, the florin was initially divided into 60 kreutzers. The currency was decimalized in 1857, using the same names for the unit and subunit.
The South German Gulden was the currency of the states of southern Germany between 1754 and 1873. These states included Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg, Frankfurt and Hohenzollern. It was divided into 60 kreuzer, with each kreuzer worth 4 pfennig or 8 heller.
The Thaler was the currency of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen until 1873. It was divided into 72 Grote, each of 5 Schwaren. While initially identical to the North German thaler before the 1750s, it was the only currency to maintain the gold standard of 5 thalers to a Friedrich d'or pistole from the 1750s until 1873, long after all other states adopted the Conventionsthaler.
The Hamburg Mark refers to two distinct currencies issued in the city of Hamburg until 1875:
The Prussian Thaler was the currency of Prussia until 1857. In 1750, Johann Philipp Graumann implemented the Graumannscher Fuß with 14 thalers issued to a Cologne Mark of fine silver, or 16.704 g per thaler.
An Ephraimite was a debased coin part of whose silver content was replaced with copper. Ephraimites, as they came to be called, were issued under the authority of Frederick the Great of Prussia in the Duchy of Saxony and the Kingdom of Prussia from 1756 till 1763 during the Seven Years' War. The coins were spread by merchants and soldiers in Silesia, Bohemia, Poland and Courland and traded as if they were of official silver content. In return higher value foreign coins would be received, which could be used to pay the costs of army supply. By the end of 1762 Frederick the Great abandoned this policy. After the war the traditional content standards were restored.
Trade coins are coins minted by a government, but not necessarily legal tender within the territory of the issuing country. These quasi bullion coins were thus actually export goods - that is, bullion in the form of coins, used to bulk buy important goods from other countries, where they could be bought at a favourable price, compared to the purchasing power of the same amount of bullion within the trade coins' country of origin.
The North German thaler was a currency used by several states of Northern Germany from 1690 to 1873, first under the Holy Roman Empire, then by the German Confederation. Originally equal to the Reichsthaler specie or silver coin from 1566 until the Kipper und Wipper crisis of 1618, a thaler currency unit worth less than the Reichsthaler specie was first defined in 1667 and became widely used after adoption of the Leipzig currency standard of 1690.
The history of Saxon coinage or Meissen-Saxon coinage comprises three major periods: the high medieval regional pfennig period, the late medieval pfennig period and the thaler period, which ended with the introduction of the mark in 1871/72. Rich silver deposits, which were discovered near Freiberg after the middle of the 12th century, helped Saxony to a leading position in German coinage.
The Wechselthaler, also spelt Wechseltaler or Wechsel-Thaler, was minted in 1670 and 1671 in the Electorate of Saxony under Elector John George II (1656–1680) to the Wechselthaler or Burgundian thaler standard (861/1000 fineness). As the name suggests, the Wechselthaler and its subdivisions were intended as a currency to encourage Leipzig's trade with Hamburg and the Netherlands. The first coins from 1670 therefore bear the inscription WECHSELTHALER on the reverse. The Wechselthaler standard was only valid in Electoral Saxony in 1670 and 1671.
A Münzfuß is an historical term, used especially in the Holy Roman Empire, for an official minting or coinage standard that determines how many coins of a given type were to be struck from a specified unit of weight of precious metal. The Münzfuß, or Fuß ("foot") for short in numismatics, determined a coin's fineness, i.e. how much of a precious metal it would contain. Mintmaster Julian Eberhard Volckmar Claus defined the standard in his 1753 work, Kurzgefaßte Anleitung zum Probieren und Münzen, as follows: "The appropriate proportion of metals and the weight of the coin, measured according to their internal and external worth, or determined according to their quality, additives and fineness, number and weight, is called the Münzfuß."
A coin base weight (Münzgrundgewicht) is a mathematical reference for the minting of coins that was used in the monetary systems of the Holy Roman Empire. In conjunction with the coin standard (Münzfuß), the coin base weight indicates how many coins are to be minted from a specified standard weight.
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