Graumann coin base

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A Reichs Thaler Friedrich II 1777
Prussian Reichstaler from 1819 based on the Graumann coin standard

The Graumann coin foot is a coin foot developed by the Prussian general mint master Johann Philipp Graumann . According to the Graumann coin standard, 14 Prussian Reichstaler were minted from a fine Cologne mark of silver from 1750 . The Graumann coin footer is therefore also called the 14 thaler coin foot or 14 thaler foot for short. The development of a uniform German coin system in the 18th and 19th centuries was significantly influenced by the Graumann coin standard.

A short name is Graumann foot.

Graumann coin foot and Prussian Reichstaler

1 ⁄ 3 Prussian Reichstaler based on the Graumann coin standard

Shortly before the middle of the 18th century, Friedrich II of Prussia recruited the mint master Graumann from Braunschweig-Lüneburg . He was assigned the task of developing a workable coin system. It should replace the previous coin system, which was based on the Leipziger Münzfuß , a 12-thaler foot.

The Reichstaler based on the Graumann coin was one of ten German Talers in the late phase of the Holy Roman Empire . The importance of the Graumann coin base results from the fact that it was the basis of the “most promising taler coin” of the time. Above all, from 1831 it was the basis of efforts in the German Customs Union , which was led by Prussia, to achieve a more uniform German coin system.

The Prussian Reichstaler were minted until 1856. Until 1821, the small coins issued according to the Graumann standard included the good penny in most, but not all, Prussian provinces . 24 good groschen make a Prussian Reichstaler. From 1821 in Prussia the Reichstaler in 14 thaler feet was divided into 30 silver groschen.

The 14 thaler coin base from 1834

2 Thaler Kingdom of Hanover, Georg V. 1854, inscription on the reverse: "VEREINSMÜNZE • 2 THALER 3½ GULDEN • VII EINE F. MARK • 1854 •" (We. 1812) 2 Thaler Kingdom of Hanover, Georg V. 1854, inscription on the reverse: "VEREINSMÜNZE • 2 THALER 3½ GULDEN • VII EINE F. MARK • 1854 •" (We. 1812)
2 Thaler Kingdom of Hanover , Georg V. 1854, inscription on the reverse: "VEREINSMÜNZE • 2 THALER 3½ GULDEN • VII EINE F. MARK • 1854 •" ( We. 1812)

From 1834 onwards, all countries with thaler currency that belonged to the German Customs Union adopted the Graumann 14 thaler coin base. Countries that initially did not belong to the Zollverein also joined (Hanover 1834; the two Mecklenburg countries 1848). This alignment also had an impact on the southern German states with the guilder currency . In 1837 they decided to set up the Süddeutscher Münzverein , which prescribed a 24½ guilder standard for minting guilders. This determination was made in such a way that in the Dresden Mint Treaty in 1838 a common coin of the Gulden and Taler countries could be defined: the club coin of 7 pieces from the Mark fine. The club coin was therefore a 2-thaler piece ("double thaler") according to the Graumann coin and at the same time a 3½ guilder piece.

See also: Saxon coin history # Minting in the 14 thaler foot (1839–1856)

Work after conversion to the customs pound in 1857

The Vienna Mint Treaty in 1857 created a largely uniform currency area "between the Adriatic and the Baltic" with regard to large silver coins . The new coin base was chosen so that the fineness of the resulting thaler coins hardly differed from that of the older Vereinstaler (see above). This was achieved by combining the transition from the Cologne weight mark to the inch pound of 500 g with a 30 thaler coin footer.

In a modified form, 14 thaler feet were minted until 1871. The influence also continues in the subsequent mark currency of the German Reich: The definition of the gold standard of the mark is based on a third of the value of a silver thaler according to the Graumann coin standard .

literature

  • Rainer Gömmel: The development of the economy in the age of mercantalism 1620-1800. Munich, 1998, p. 53f.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Duden. The German spelling. 23rd edition, 1st volume, Bibliographisches Institut & F. A. Brockhaus AG, Mannheim 2004, K 16.
  2. ^ Werner Pfeiffer: History of money in Schleswig-Holstein. Westholsteinische Verlagsanstalt Boysens & Co., Heide in Holstein 1972, p. 65.
  3. ↑ Hans-Dietrich Kahl: Main lines of German coin history from the end of the 18th century to 1878. Dr. Busso Peus Nachf., Frankfurt / Main 1972, pp. 7-10, quotation p. 9.
  4. ↑ a b Hans-Dietrich Kahl: Main lines of German coin history from the end of the 18th century to 1878. Dr. Busso Peus Nachf., Frankfurt / Main 1972, pp. 7-10.
  5. ↑ Hans-Dietrich Kahl: Main lines of German coin history from the end of the 18th century to 1878. Dr. Busso Peus Nachf., Frankfurt / Main 1972, pp. 11-16.
  6. ↑ Hans-Dietrich Kahl: Main lines of German coin history from the end of the 18th century to 1878. Dr. Busso Peus Nachf., Frankfurt / Main 1972, p. 21ff., Quotation p. 23.