Prussian coin history
The Prussian coin history covers the period from the coronation of Frederick III. , Elector of Brandenburg and Duke in Prussia, King in Prussia in 1701 up to the 2nd Reich Coin Act in 1873. It is preceded in particular by the Brandenburg coin history, which did not end with the beginning of Prussian coin history.
1701 to 1750
As owners of the coin rack, Friedrich and his successors had gold coins ( ducats ) and the larger silver coins minted as Prussian kings and electors of Brandenburg (until 1806) for all their possessions, from which the state of Prussia developed in the 18th century . The most common denominations were 3, VI, and 18 groschen coins. In contrast, the small coins were not standardized for the provinces, but rather minted in systems that sometimes differed from one another. For Brandenburg, pfennigs and, above all, 1 groschen coins (as 1/48 thaler) and two penny coins (as 1/24 thaler) were minted.
1750 to 1821
In 1750, under King Friedrich II, Johann Philipp Graumann introduced the Graumann coin footer. From the basic coin weight of the Cologne mark , 14 thalers were minted ("14 thalers foot"). Since then, the Prussian coins have had a mint mark that indicates the minting location of the respective coin and has replaced the previous mint master mark . For Berlin this is still the mint mark "A".
In the province of Brandenburg the thaler was initially divided into 24 good groschen , the good groschen in 12 pfennigs each, and the taler in 288 pfennigs. After Silesia fell mainly to Prussia in 1742, the traditional system of Gröschel and Pfennige (1 Gröschel = 3 Pfennige) was minted as small coins. The new taler in the 14 thaler foot was divided into 90 kreuzers or 120 groeschels. East Friesland, which was added to Prussia in 1744, continued to use Stüber and Mariengroschen as small coins. Due to the economic stresses of the Napoleonic Wars, the original ratio of the taler as Kurant coin to the small coins as divisional coins was mixed up. Sometimes 36 to 42 groschen had to be counted on a thaler.
1821 to 1873
In 1821 the Prussian Coin Act of September 30th introduced a uniform small coin system for all of Prussia. This is a late extension of the Prussian reforms . The first samples of new small coins had been minted as early as 1812, but were initially not minted for payment transactions. Only with the law of September 30, 1821 was a small coin system valid for all of Prussia introduced. The thaler was now divided into 30 silver groschen, but the silver groschen was further divided into 12 pfennigs. The taler was now divided into 360 pfennigs instead of the previously theoretical 288 pfennigs. For this, the value ratio of Kurant coins to coins should now be fixed. To distinguish them from the old pennies, the new ones were now called "pfennings". Since the 1830s, but especially since the 1840s, the new silver groschen had served as a model for many other north and central German states, even if they also divided the silver groschen differently. The Kingdom of Saxony divided its new penny (of which, as in Prussia, 30 were worth a 14-thaler foot) not into 12 pfennigs, but into 10 pfennigs. This made the Saxon pfennig a little heavier than the Prussian one, as 300 pfennigs were now one thaler. With the third thaler, which was worth 100 Saxon pfennigs, Saxony was able to take a step towards the decimal system.
Above all, the adoption of the Prussian 14 thaler foot by most of the northern and central German states in 1837 made it possible to conclude the Dresden Mint Treaty, which was continued by the Vienna Mint Treaty in 1857.
After the establishment of the Empire in 1871, the first Reich Coin Act introduced the Mark currency as gold coins in the same year, but initially left the coin systems of the individual states untouched. Prussia therefore continued to mint silver groschen and pfennigs until 1873, until the Second Reich Coin Act in 1873 also standardized small coins and the mark was now 100 pfennigs of the new currency.
literature
- Gerhard Schön, German coin catalog 18th century, 3rd edition Munich 2002, Prussia: pp. 720–724, Brandenburg: pp. 128–150, Brandenburg-Ansbach: pp. 151–167, Brandenburg-Bayreuth: pp. 168–184 , Danzig: Pages 245–246, Neuchâtel: pp. 610–612, Ostfriesland: pp. 669–673, Silesia: pp. 888–895, South Prussia (Greater Poland landscape): p. 714, ISBN 3-89441-525-8
- Erich Neumann, coinage of the Electorate of Brandenburg and the Kingdom of Prussia in two volumes 1415–1918, Münzzentrum Verlag, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-933658-00-4
- Hermann Junghans, A Formative Model: The Prussian Small Coin Reform of 1821, in: Geldgeschichtliche Nachrichten , Issue 294, July 2018, ISSN 0435-1835 , pp. 222-230
- Manfred Olding, The Coins of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1786 to 1873, H. Gietl Verlag, Regenstauf 2014, ISBN 978-3-86646-561-9