Bielke coin twists
As Bielkesche Münzwirren are the criminal activities of the Governor General of Swedish Pomerania , Count Nils Bielke , in connection with the minting inferior hohenstein shear coins in Szczecin during the " Little Tipper time referred".
Although not entitled to do so according to the Reich Coin Order, Count Gustav zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein († 1701) ran his own mint in Ellrich from 1671 , a so-called " Heckenmünze ". Later, the Ellrich coin will be characterized as "the most terrible and most perishable hedge coin, which in its wicked hustle and bustle with the use of wrong dates and the imitation of foreign coins in Germany was not outbid by any other". Because of these machinations, the institution in Ellrich had to be closed in 1687.
Wittgenstein then turned to the Swedish King Karl XI. and on August 8, 1688, the latter gave the governor-general of Pomerania, Count Nils Bielke, the power to mint Hohenstein coins in Stettin under the strictest of secrecy. As a result, the previous Stettin mint master David Heinrich Matthäus was transferred to Stralsund , the other mint officials dismissed and the Ellrich mint master Johann Leonhard Arensburg came to Stettin as mint master.
The inferior coins minted in Stettin under Arensburg were secretly brought to Hamburg and put into circulation there. The Swedish king, his governor Bielke and mint master Arensburg shared the profit. Mainly 2/3 thaler pieces with a bad coin rate and forged dates (e.g. 1676, 1683 or 1688) were minted. Although the suspicion was soon confirmed in Brandenburg and Mecklenburg that Stettin was being minted incorrectly, King Bielke let it go.
Only after Charles XI. Had died in 1697, Karl XII. In 1698 Bielke and Arensburg were arrested and a long process followed, which only ended on April 15, 1705 with Bielke's death sentence. At the intercession of the queen widow Hedwig Eleonora , Bielke was pardoned in June 1705, but remained banned from the court for the rest of his life.
literature
- Wolff: The hedge coin of Count Gustav zu Sayn-Wittgenstein zu Clettenberg 1672 - 1691 . In: Harzische Münzkunde - Zeitschrift des Harzverein, Göttingen / Wernigerode, 1879, pp. 299–307
- O. Malmström: Högmalsprocessen mot Nils Bielke . Stockholm 1899
- Joachim Krüger: Between the Reich and Sweden. The sovereign coinage in the Duchy of Pomerania and in Swedish Pomerania in the early modern period . (= Nordic History Vol. 3) Berlin 2006 ISBN 3-8258-9768-0
Remarks
- ↑ according to Universitätsrat Wolff in reference 1879, p. 299