Reichsmünzfuß

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The Reichsmünzfuß is an officially decided upon for general use monetary standard for the Holy Roman Empire . Different imperial coin feet were set for different types of coins.

prehistory

After Charlemagne had introduced the successful Carolingian coin reform, the high medieval interregnum led to the collapse of the imperial coinage sovereignty. At the Diet of Eger in 1437, an early form of the Imperial Coin Order was discussed and the first stipulations were made towards an Imperial Coin foot. It was determined that gold coins valid throughout the empire should only be minted with a fineness of 19 carats ( 771.6 ⁄ 1000 ). No quantitative determinations were made for silver coins at that time.

The Reichstag of 1438 and 1442 under Emperor Friedrich III. confirmed the provisions of Eger. At the Reichstag in Worms in 1495 , a formal Reichsmünzfuß for gold coins was set, but not finally decided. Following the example of the gold guilders of the past years of the Rheinischer Münzverein , 1 ½ Cologne Marks should be rough, i.e. H. already alloyed, 107 pieces are stamped. The fineness of the gold alloy used for embossing should be set to 19 carats 6 Grän ( 812.5 ⁄ 1000 ). The fine gold content would have been 2.66 g.

Examples

Gold guilders, 1524

When he was elected as emperor, Charles V had promised to put the coinage system in order permanently. After deliberations from 1521 onwards, the second imperial regiment , representing the emperor , issued the first German imperial coinage system in Esslingen on November 10, 1524 . The Reichsmünzfuß for gold guilders with a fineness of 22 carats ( 916.7 ⁄ 1000 ) was 89 pieces from the fine Cologne mark of 22 carats (fine weight: 2.41 g).

Imperial guilders, 1524

For the first time, a general standard for large silver coins was introduced in the Esslingen Reich Coin Order. The background to this was the successful introduction of silver coins, which were supposed to be equivalent in metal value to the gold guilder. The value ratio was then around 1:11. It all started with the Tyrolean Guldiner (from 1486); From 1500 followed the first Saxon guldengroschen minted in Annaberg / Frohnau and probably also in Wittenberg , later called the Klappmützentaler . A Saxon guldengroschen contained 27.40 g of fine silver, as eight coins were to be struck from a rough Cologne mark of 15 Loth ( 937.5 ⁄ 1000 ). In 1505 there was a deterioration in fineness to 14 Loth 16 Grän ( 930.6 ⁄ 1000 ). From 1519 onwards, large quantities of the Joachimstaler Guldengroschen (27.20 g fine silver) were minted according to this coinage rate in the Joachimstal in North Bohemia . The success of this coinage was so great that the short name Thaler was developed for this type of coin , which then became internationally established for large silver coins (see also Taler , Rigsdaler, Speciestaler , Dollar ).

In the Esslinger Münzordnung, the Reichsmünzfuß for a silver coin called Reichsgulden determined that eight coins with a fineness of 15 Loth ( 937.5 ⁄ 1000 ) were to be issued from a rough Cologne Mark of silver . However, the fine silver content was 27.4 g, i.e. H. 0.2 g higher than the content of the older Saxon and Joachimstaler guldengroschen that are already in large quantities. This Reichsmünzfuß therefore did not prevail.

Reichstaler 1566

The most important imperial coin for the coming decades was decided in 1566 at the Diet in Augsburg. A further 8 coins had to be struck from a rough Cologne mark of silver; however, the fineness was reduced to 14 Loth 4 Grän ( 888.9 ⁄ 1000 ). This coin base is identical to the minting of 9 coins from the fine Cologne mark, since in both cases the fine silver content is 25.98 g ( 9 thaler feet ).

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Carl Friedrich Gerstlacher (1786) Corpus iuris Germanici publici et privati: that is the most genuine text of the German imperial laws, imperial orders and other imperial norms, in systematic order, with annotations. First volume - Of imperial laws and imperial orders. Johann Benedict Mezler, Frankfurt and Leipzig. Second unchanged edition. P. 374 ff.
  2. ^ Friedrich von Schrötter, N. Bauer: (1970) Dictionary of Coin Studies. Walter de Gruyter, 1970, p. 556 f.