Hedge coin

A hedge coin is a secret, unlawful mint . In the 17th and 18th centuries it was used to designate a mint "which was not confirmed by the relevant imperial circles and which produced and sold inferior money". According to the German imperial coinage order of 1559 , the operation of a mint was only allowed for those sovereigns or free imperial cities who operated their own silver mining.

Depending on their value, the coins of the hedge coins are called Heckpfennige, Heckgroschen or Hecktaler. In order to obtain the appropriate basic material, coins with a high mint base (content of precious metal) were mostly melted down, with inferior additions than with known and imported coins and new coins were struck from this increased basic material. A common practice was to imitate products from other mints. Ambiguous coats of arms or changed or abbreviated transcriptions made it as difficult as possible to identify the true minting authority .

Especially in the Middle Ages there were many mints that were hedge coins. On the one operated legitimized Coin Lords besides a rear coin to make extra money to earn, on the other hand these illegitimate mints were from Prince opened and towns that no embossing law had - it was simply Counterfeiting operated. In the absence of uniform legislation in the numerous small German states, however, this practice was difficult to stop. The wedding this spiral of debasement was in the years 1619 - 1623 , the so-called Kipper and Wipper period , as well as 1670 - 1690 (Small Wipperzeit).

A well-known hedge coin in the Middle Ages was the coin established by Dietrich II von Moers in Deutz (near Cologne ) around 1458 , which produced postulate gold gulden . After the discovery, the city of Cologne refused to recognize it as full and unmistakably communicated this to Dietrich von Moers.

During the Seven Years' War (Third Wipper and Kipper period) , the coin in Rethwisch , located in the Duchy of Holstein , was used as a hedge coin through inferior imitation of good groschen from Anhalt-Zerbst . Until 1830, the city of Coburg also operated a hedge coin on a large scale .

Hedge minting was favored by Gresham's law , according to which “bad” money, which is inferior in terms of precious metal content, “good” money is displaced under certain conditions. This is the case when it is difficult to identify the inferior money or when there is a sovereignly enforced acceptance obligation for bad money .

See also: Mint Leipzig: Under Prussian occupation (relapse into Heckmünzerei)

literature

• Alfred Noss: The coins and medals of Cologne - second volume 1306-1547. City of Cologne (ed.), Cologne 1913.
• Herder's Conversations Lexicon. Edition from 1854.
• Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon, Volume 9. Leipzig 1907, p. 35.
• Friedrich von Schrötter: The German hedge coinage in the last quarter of the 17th century. In: German Yearbook for Numismatics. Vol. 1, 1938, pp. 39-106.

Web links

• Friedrich von Schrotter: Dictionary of coinage. De Gruyter, Berlin 1970, p. 257 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Helmut Kahnt, Bernd Knorr: Old dimensions, coins and weights. A lexicon. Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1986, licensed edition Mannheim / Vienna / Zurich 1987, ISBN 3-411-02148-9 , p. 384 f.