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The Prussian Thaler (sometimes Prussian Reichsthaler) 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.
Gold coins were called as Friedrich d'or from 1750 to 1857 except for 1797 (Ducant in 1797), and silver coins were called as Thalers. The weight, and finesse of coins had changed as the kings changed. [1]
Until 1821, the thaler was subdivided in Brandenburg into 24 Groschen , each of 12 Pfennige . In Prussia proper, it was subdivided into 3 Polish Gulden = FL = Zloty , each of 30 Groschen (each Groschen = 18 Pfennige) or 90 Schilling. Prussia's currency was unified in 1821, with the Thaler subdivided into 30 Silbergroschen, each of 12 Pfennige.
While the predominant North German thaler used in other North German states from 1750 to 1840 was issued 131⁄3 to a Mark and appeared in denominations of 2⁄3 and 11⁄3 thalers, the Prussian thaler was issued 14 to a Mark and appeared as a 1-thaler coin.
From the 1840s, several states set the value of the North German thaler to parity with the Prussian thaler, also 14 to a Mark. In 1857, these North German and Prussian thalers were replaced by the Vereinsthaler, having become the standard across much of Germany.
A thaler or taler 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 Joachimsthal, Bohemia, from 1520.
The pfennig ; symbol pf or ₰) 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 Germany 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.
Groschen is the name for various coins, especially a silver coin used in parts of Europe including France, some of the Italian states, England, and various states of the Holy Roman Empire.
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 to 1914, but like most nations during World War I, the German Empire removed the gold backing in August 1914, and gold coins ceased to circulate.
A non-decimal currency is a currency that has sub-units that are a non-decimal fraction of the main unit, i.e. the number of sub-units in a main unit is not a power of 10. Historically, most currencies were non-decimal, though today virtually all are now decimal.
The Kreuzer, in English also spelled kreutzer, was a coin and unit of currency in the southern German states prior to the introduction of the German gold mark in 1871–1873, and in Austria and Switzerland. After 1760 it was made of copper. In south Germany the kreuzer was typically worth 4 Pfennige and there were 60 Kreuzer to a gulden. Kreuzer was abbreviated as Kr, kr, K or Xr.
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 Austro-Hungarian gulden (German), also known as the florin, forint, or zloty, was the currency of the lands of the House of Habsburg between 1754 and 1892, when it was replaced by the Austro-Hungarian krone as part of the introduction of the gold standard. In Austria, the gulden was initially divided into 60 kreuzers. 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 Hamburg Mark refers to two distinct currencies issued in the city of Hamburg until 1875:
The Thaler was the currency of the Electorate, later Kingdom of Hanover until 1857. It was identical to the North German thaler except from 1754 to 1834 when it was worth 1/12 a Cologne Mark of fine silver. It was subdivided into 36 Mariengroschen, each of 8 Pfennig.
Baden used the South German gulden as its currency from 1754 until 1873. Until 1821, the Gulden was a unit of account, worth 5⁄12 of a Conventionsthaler, used to denominate banknotes but not issued as a coin. It was subdivided into 50 Conventionskreuzer or 60 Kreuzer landmünze.
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 and valued at 4.8-5 silver North German thalers.
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.
The Vienna Monetary Treaty of 1857 was a treaty that set a currency standard for use across the German Zollverein states, Austria, and Liechtenstein. The official name of the treaty was Monetary Treaty Between the German States of 24 January 1857.
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.
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."