Courantmark

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The Courantmark (also Mark Courant or Kurantmark ) was a common unit of account for silver money , especially in the northern German Hanseatic cities . In terms of value, the Courantmark is a forerunner of the Mark (1871) , i.e. the gold currency of the German Empire.

"Mark" originally referred to a unit of mass (see Mark (weight) ). In Lübeck , the Cologne mark has been the reference unit for calculating coin weights since the 13th century at the latest . One Cologne mark corresponds to around 233.856 grams of fine silver . Money transactions were already being carried out in Marks in Lübeck in the 15th century. In 1403 about 5.6 Marks from Luebisch corresponded to one Cologne Mark of fine silver. Silver coins of this size were not minted at the time; the Lübische Mark was initially a pure unit of account.

From 1506 onwards, a common mark of the cities of Hamburg , Lüneburg , Wismar and Lübeck , called a state mark , was minted. This coin was a means of payment for the medieval-early modern Wendish Mint Association and, due to the trading power of the Hanseatic cities, it was also used in the entire Baltic region. After the end of the Wendish Münzverein, the northern German Hanseatic cities introduced the taler . However, the mark remained an important bill coin worth 16 shillings . One thaler was worth three marks and thus 48 shillings.

In the 18th century, Hamburg and Lübeck introduced one mark in the 34 mark coin footer, which was devalued after the 9 thaler foot compared to the Reichstaler . The Hamburg book and accounting currency, Mark Banco , was devalued only minimally. The devalued mark was also a bill of exchange, since the minted coins were not for "Mark" but for " Schilling Hamburger Current ". Later the French name "Courant" for Schilling and Counting Mark was established in the Hanseatic cities and the neighboring principalities. From 1788 there was the schilling Schleswig-Holsteinisch Courant in the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein.

In the Baltic Sea region, the counting mark was the central trading currency as Courantmark / Kurantmark / Mark Courant until the 19th century . The bill in Courantmark was only replaced after 1871 by the introduction of the Mark (1871) ("Goldmark") throughout the empire . After the establishment of the German Empire , the "Mark" had prevailed as a compromise denomination between the North German Taler and the South German Gulden as the single German currency under the Coin Act of July 9, 1873 . The value of the German Reich currency mark was roughly based on historical circumstances, according to which one thaler corresponds to three marks.

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Individual evidence

  1. Coin Act and RGBl. 1873, pp. 233-240 of July 9, 1873