Ephraimites
Ephraimites were the name given to the inferior coins of the Seven Years' War that Prussians had minted since 1756 . Due to their minting, they represented full-fledged (pre-war) Kurant coins in the precious metal content of the normal citizen , but were actually inferior in their fineness .
Financing the war costs
Frederick the Great financed part of the Seven Years' War that began in 1756 by coining the Ephraimites . Prussia had brought the Saxon mint of Leipzig under its control. This mint was leased to a consortium led by the Berlin banker Veitel Heine Ephraim .
"In Leipzig , the entrepreneurs Ephraim, Itzig and Compagnie minted enormous amounts of low-value money since 1756, in tympfen , six-, three- and especially eight-dollar pieces, first with the found Saxon stamps from 1753, later with newly made stamps of the Saxon type."
These silver coins all contained significantly less silver than their face value indicated. In particular, silver was replaced by copper , which was much cheaper to obtain . The coins were initially brought into circulation at full value and therefore at substantial profit.
Ephraim, Itzig & Cie. minted in Leipzig mainly with older, original stamps from other countries. The silver Saxon-Polish 8-groschen piece and the Polish 18-groschen piece (Tympf) as well as the golden 5-taler piece, also called August d'or or in German "golden August", were reduced in fineness. Saxon stamps, which mostly dated before 1756, were used for the minting.
Outwardly, the falsified golden 5-thaler pieces differed from the full-fledged coins in that they were reddish and slightly thicker. The greater thickness compensated for the lower specific weight, the density, of the copper, because a lower total weight of the coins would have been noticed by the public immediately. In the case of the falsified silver coins, the manipulation could not be easily read from the thickness of the plan , since the specific weight of copper is only about 30% lower than that of silver.
These coins were brought into circulation in Saxony by the military. Disguised as “pre-war coins”, the Ephraimites were not immediately recognizable as inferior to ordinary people. They therefore initially accepted the Ephraimites at their full pre-war face value. Better informed merchants, artisans and innkeepers soon refused to count these coins at their full face value and demanded higher prices.
| New August d'or | ||
| Saxony under Prussian occupation | ||
| Value = 1 thaler 13 groschen | ||
| Berlin Mint, minted 1761–1762 by the Berlin consortium Veitel Ephraim, Itzig & Co. | ||
| Weight: 6.58 g larger diameter: 25.25-25.56 mm larger thickness: 1.44 mm | ||
| Front and back like the original, instead of the leaf edge, diagonally fluted edge |
Prussian 1 ⁄ 6- Thalers were also significantly reduced in fineness by Prussia itself from 1757 and this was not officially announced. From this time there are also Prussian full copper 1 ⁄ 6 thaler forgeries that were only silver-plated on the outside, which, however, allows the assumption that private coin forgers were also active in the chaos of war.
Interestingly, Ephraimites were legally eligible for circulation in Prussia until 1820. Their value was announced in so-called valvation tables (= coin value comparison tables ). In 1820 a final exchange and collection was called. These Ephraimites can be called Kurant coins devalued according to their actual precious metal content. They are not your typical dividing coins as they were not accepted according to their face value.
Examples of the "true value" of two 5-thaler coins (August d'or) from 1758 and the tympf according to a Prussian valvation table from 1820:
- "Two Mittel-August-d'Or (nominally 10 Taler) = 6 Taler, 21 Groschen, 6 Pfennige (Prussian Courant)", d. In other words, there was at least one and a half thaler of gold missing from the face value of each 5 thaler coin.
- "An 8-groschen piece = 3 groschen (Prussian Courant)", d. That is, 5 groschen are missing (whereby the Saxon groschen was worth a little more than the Prussian one).
Exposing the fraud
Coins with unknown fineness can easily be checked for correct fineness with the water sample . The fineness can also be determined relatively precisely by comparing the line colors on the slate plate (with the aid of a test acid such as nitric acid or diluted aqua regia ). The change over time of the discoloration of the metal line (the fading) of the coin to be tested is compared with the fading of the test needles, known for their fineness, under the influence of acid. If the coin wear mark faded at the same time as that of the well-known trial needle, the fineness of the coin was identical to that of the standardized, well-known needle.
This allowed the true metal value of the Ephraimites to be determined using the rough weight . The scam therefore only worked for about three years. Due to the smaller number of appropriately trained experts, the fraud worked longer in rural areas than in cities.
A contemporary saying about the Ephraimites reads:
"Nice on the outside,
bad on the inside,
Fritz on the outside,
Ephraim on the inside!"
Imitators
As a result, some smaller minters minted their own coins as well, which was particularly evident in the case of groschen and half-groschen coins. These were often only silver-plated on the outside, for example in the case of coins from the Anhalt principalities.
See also
- Tipper and luffing time
- Kipper münzstätten (Kursachsen)
- Kippertaler
- Flapper
- Leipzig Mint : under Prussian occupation
- Red sigh
swell
- ^ Emil Bahrfeldt: Brandenburg-Prussian Coin Studies ; Berlin: Verlag der Berliner Münzblätter, 1913 (Reprint: Transpress 1986).
literature
- Lienhard Buck: The coins of the Electorate of Saxony 1763–1806 , transpress Verlag für Verkehrwesen Berlin 1981
- Bernd Kluge: For the survival of the state. The deterioration of coins by Frederick the Great in the Seven Years' War , in: Yearbook for the History of Central and Eastern Germany 59 (2014), pp. 125-143.