Apple guilder

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Apple gulden, Hamburg 1438/1439, reverse with imperial orb in three pass , the inscription names King Albrecht II.
Apple gulden, Hamburg 1438/1439, the obverse shows Simon Petrus
Single-sheet print to warn of false gold coins . Illustrations of apple gulden in the second, third and fifth lines, Augsburg 1482.

Apple guilders were gold guilders minted by various minters from the 15th to the 18th century , which showed the imperial orb in a three-pass , four-pass or six-pass on the reverse . They were initially minted as imperial coins in Basel , Dortmund , Nördlingen , Nuremberg and Frankfurt in the early 15th century . Later, a number of princes and imperial cities also minted apple guilders due to specifications for the design of their coins, to which the granting of the right to mint was tied.

Rhenish guilders

In 1386 the electors of Trier , Cologne , Mainz and the Palatinate , who had been granted the right to mint a few years earlier by Emperor Charles IV in the Golden Bull , founded the Rhenish Mint Association . Its main coin was the Rhenish Gulden , which first showed John the Baptist , later Simon Peter and finally Jesus Christ on the obverse . The reverse bore a three-pass with the coat of arms of the mint in the middle and those of the three other electors in the corners. Despite repeated coin valuations, the Rhenish Gulden was extremely solid and in great demand compared to other gold coins.

Apple guilder of the Holy Roman Empire

Already in the early 15th century there were efforts by the German kings to regain mint sovereignty in the area of ​​the Rhenish Mint Association. From 1418 was King Sigismund by Konrad von Weinberg first apple guilders in the royal mints Frankfurt, Nördlingen and Nuremberg characterize later Dortmund and Basel were added. The coinage in Aachen , Cologne , and Mülheim was planned, but was not implemented. The obverse of the first gold guilders minted in Frankfurt and Nördlingen showed John the Baptist with a lamb, while those minted in Basel showed the city patroness Maria with the baby Jesus. Other motifs were used later and by other mints. The Reichsapfel in three-pass, four-pass or six-pass is on the reverse of all apple gulden.

The apple gulden were successful insofar as around 86,000 pieces were minted in Frankfurt alone when the coin was introduced in 1418. The introduction of a uniform imperial gulden failed on the one hand because the electors repeatedly banned imperial gulden in their territories and took other measures to secure their right to mint and to push back the imperial gulden. On the other hand, the German emperors, due to financial difficulties, contributed to the lower appreciation of the apple gulden by not restricting their profit from the coin privilege to the strike treasure , as the electors did. The worsening of the coins, which was stronger in frequency and extent, which meant additional indirect tax revenue for the minters, had a lasting effect on the value of the gold guilders. In addition, the German emperors and kings contributed to the fragmentation of German coinage by pledging the mints and transferring the right to mint to other princes or imperial cities.

In connection with the deterioration of the apple gulden, the activities of the arch chamberlain Konrad von Weinsberg and the mint master Stephan Scherff (first recorded in 1422 as a Cologne citizen, died around 1450), who between around 1425 and 1436, at times simultaneously, the imperial coins in Frankfurt , Nördlingen and Basel had leased. Over a long period of time, Scherff minted large numbers of apple gulden that were too light and too low in content and were very likely covered by Weinsberg. The prescribed fineness of apple gulden already fell from 23½ carats when it was first introduced to 18½ carats in the middle of the 16th century, whereby the worst German gold gulden actually had only 15 carats. Regardless of all these restrictions, the apple gulden, like the Rhenish gold gulden, was a yardstick by which all German minters orientated themselves when issuing their own gold coins.

Apple guilders from other minters

The right to mint was granted repeatedly with the condition that the name of the emperor and the orb should be shown on the coins. For this reason, apple guilders were issued by various minters until the early 18th century. An example of such coinage are the apple guilders of the Free Imperial City of Cologne . Already with the granting of the right of coinage in 1474 Cologne began the minting of apple guilders. The Cologne apple gulden were similar in appearance to the apple gulden of the empire. On the front was a Christ enthroned above the city coat of arms with the inscription MO CIVIT-AT COLOn (Money of the City of Cologne) , the reverse showed an imperial orb in a three-pass with the abbreviated names of the Three Kings , IASPAR MELCHIOR BALTHAS . The imperial orb was not only to be understood as a national emblem, but also as a symbol of the gold guilder. The city of Cologne's last apple gulden was minted in 1511.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Apple guilder . In: Friedrich von Schrötter et al. (Ed.): Dictionary of coinage . 2nd unchanged edition. De Gruyter, Berlin 1970, reprint 2012, ISBN 978-3-11-001227-9 (reprint of the original edition from 1930), pp. 288–289, archive.org .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Bernd Kluge : The coinage of the Middle Ages in the Roman-German Empire . In: Matthias Puhle and Claus-Peter Hasse (eds.): Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation 962 to 1806. Catalog and essays for the exhibition . Volume 2. Sandstein Verlag, Dresden 2006, pp. 373–382, here pp. 381–383, ISBN 3-937602-60-7 .
  3. ↑ a b Hendrik Mäkeler: Nicolas Oresme and Gabriel Biel. On monetary theory in the late Middle Ages . In: Scripta Mercaturae. Journal for Economic and Social History 2003, Volume 37, No. 1, pp. 56–94, here pp. 60–67, hendrik.maekeler.eu (PDF; 3.6 MB).
  4. ↑ Erich B. Cahn : Friedberg is wrong here. Some basic information about the Imperial Mint of Basel and King Albrecht II's gold guilders in particular . In: Schweizer Münzblätter 1976, Volume 26, No. 104, pp. 83-88, e-periodica.ch (PDF; 3.7 MB).
  5. ↑ a b Joachim Weschke: Stephan Scherff, a mint master from the first half of the 15th century . In: Yearbook for Numismatics and Monetary History 1962, Volume XII, pp. 225–238, bngev.de (PDF; 42.2 MB; entire volume).
  6. ↑ Kreissparkasse Köln (Ed.): Gold, Geld und Ehre…. Cologne museums congratulate on their 50th anniversary . The window in the Kreissparkasse Cologne, topic 165, September 2004, p. 19, geldgeschichte.de (PDF; 686 kB).