Invoice currency

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Bill coins were calculating quantities of a currency or an accounting currency in accounting that did not exist as coins .

Bill coins existed as a theoretical counting measure or counting coin for coins and later often became denominations themselves due to the deterioration of coins . Conversely, coins that were once minted as the face of a currency later became bill coins.

Early invoicing currencies in the "book money form on accounts" emerged from the efforts of merchants to make themselves independent of:

  • state coin deterioration
  • the natural wear and tear of money in circulation
  • the " tilting and rocking " of the coins by money changers and speculators
  • the great variety of different country-specific currency systems.

A good example was the Genoese Lira di Banco , whose accounting, theoretical gold content was constant from 1675 to 1793 at the equivalent of 0.328 g of gold.

In contrast to bill coins, currency coins usually had the prefix Specie on their lapel, such as B. the Specie-Thaler in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Bill coins were used for value comparison according to different monetary standard strong domestic and foreign Kurantmünzen and were the basis of the Münzvergleich in the so-called. Valvationstabellen for merchants and authorities. In addition, they were important for many supraregional trade agreements from the early modern period up into the 19th century, as local money was often paid physically with different precious metal weights, regional money.

For a long time z. B. the Reichstaler general bill coin in Germany, although it initially existed as a fully-fledged coin around 1580. Only Frederick the Great then brought the (new, Prussian) minted Reichstaler back into line with the real currency through the Graumann coin reform from 1750 onwards.

Another pure billing currency in Genoa in the 16th century was the Scudi di Marchi , which was not minted, but corresponded to the weight of 99/100 of the theoretical amount of gold of a full-weight ducat and was used in northern Italian commercial trade in the form of accounts.

The German gold mark from 1871 to 1914, represented by the gold coins of 10 and 20 marks, could also be seen as the theoretical and practical currency of account, since the state committed itself to weight-wise even worn copies that fell slightly below the precious metal passing weight to replace full coins free of charge. That applied z. B. in Great Britain not for the minted golden sovereign (= 1 pound sterling), which was then only accepted in payment devalued. Before 1817 - not yet minted as a golden sovereign - the pound sterling served as a bill of exchange and thus as a theoretical measure for 20 full-weight silver shillings or 240 pence.

The European Currency Unit , the forerunner of the euro , was purely a currency of account, as there was no ECU cash - apart from special coins with the character of medals. A similar invoice currency was the transfer ruble , which was used to offset the delivery of goods between the former Eastern Bloc countries.

There were also billing currencies and coins in other countries. In Switzerland, for example, calculations were made in kroner or pound , although coins with these denominations were never in circulation. In Russia , the ruble was used as a bill of exchange long before the actual ruble coins were minted.

There are also examples where originally real coins were later turned into bill coins and then again real coins: From around 1300 the schilling (12 pfennig = 1 schilling) was considered the bill coin in northern Germany . In the course of the 14th century it was minted as a silver coin. The gold solidus also existed before 800 as a coin with very high purchasing power and then remained for a long time as a bill of exchange (1 solidus = 24 siliquae ).

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Heinz Fengler, Gerhard Gierow, Willy Unger: Transpress Lexikon Numismatics. Berlin 1976.

literature

  • Ernst Samhaber "Merchants walk the world", Societäts-Verlag Frankfurt 1993 2nd edition, p. 184 (Scudi di Marchi), ISBN 3-7973-0540-0 .
  • Fernand Braudel "Social history of the 15th-18th century, departure for the world economy", published by Kindler Munich 1990, p. 184 Lira di Banco, ISBN 3-463-40150-9 .
  • Heinz Fengler, Gerhard Gierow, Willy Unger: Transpress Lexicon Numismatics. Berlin 1976.