Rigsbankdaler
The Rigsbankdaler (contemporary German Reichsbankthaler [RBTh.]) Was in a short phase of Danish monetary history from 1813 to 1854 the currency unit in the entire Danish state . During this time the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein as well as Norway and Iceland were under the sovereignty of the King of Denmark . The Rigsbankdaler was replaced by the " Rigsdaler RM" (for Danish Rigsmønt , German imperial currency ) in 1854 .
At the same time, Rigsbankdaler denotes the main coin of the currency system of that time with a mass of 14.5 g silver ( fineness : 875/1000).
Historical background Schleswig-Holstein
From the late Middle Ages to the 19th century, Schleswig-Holstein's history was shaped by the competing power interests of a German-born nobility and the Danish crown. After the Treaty of Ripen , the Danish king did not rule the parts of Schleswig and Holstein as King of Denmark. The Duchy of Schleswig was a royal Danish fiefdom, which he ruled as Duke of Schleswig. Holstein (and Stormarn) on the other hand were imperial fiefs of the Holy Roman Empire . He ruled these parts of the country as Duke Holstein in personal union with Schleswig. In the Treaty of Ripen, the Danish king had promised to circulate the same kind of money in the duchies as in Lübeck and Hamburg.
As an important power factor alongside the Danish crown, the partial duchy of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf emerged after various inheritance divisions . After the Russian Tsar title fell to the House of Holstein-Gottorf at the end of the 18th century, the Treaty of Tsarskoye Selo in 1773 determined that significant parts of the entire Duchy not previously ruled from Copenhagen should come under the direct rule of the Danish king. After a few small territorial consolidations, the area of today's Schleswig-Holstein was under uniform Danish administration at the turn of the 19th century, with the exception of the Principality of Lübeck , the Hanseatic City of Lübeck and the Duchy of Saxony-Lauenburg .
The Hanseatic cities of Lübeck and Hamburg had signed a coinage treaty in 1622, which the surrounding areas joined. The Reichstaler should be divided according to the contract instead of 32 in 48 shillings. Since 16 schillings traditionally resulted in one (Lübsche) mark , a full Reichstaler 3 marks was used from then on. In 1718 Lübeck and Hamburg introduced the Courant money after another coin reform . The corresponding Couranttaler was again divided into 48 schillings ( Schillinge Courant ). To distinguish them, coins that were minted according to the old Reichsmünzfuß were now called Speciesthaler or species for short . Since the monetary standard of the Couranttaler was worsened in a ratio of 4: 5, one speciestaler corresponded to 1 ¼ Couranttaler and 60 Schillingen Courant.
In 1771, a royal mint that worked until 1863 was established in the royal Danish Altona / Elbe . The coin initially minted speciestaler and small coins with the image and the initials of the Danish kings. In the Schleswig-Holstein coin system of the 17th century, as in Hamburg and Lübeck, the Reichs- = Speciestaler was initially valid after the 9 ¼ thaler standard. In February 1788, the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein , the rule of Pinneberg and the county of Rantzau were given their own new silver currency in Kuranttalern, based on the model of the Hanseatic cities. A thaler in Schleswig-Holstein was exactly the same as one of the Hanseatic Kurant thalers and, like this, 4/5 of a speciestaler. The thaler schleswig-holsteinisch courant was divided into 3 mark courant of 16 schillingen schleswig-holsteinisch courant each . However, speciestalers continued to be minted by the royal mint in Altona. Speciestaler minted from 1800 to 1808 still had the fine weight of 25.282 g silver, corresponding to the old Reichstaler .
In 1788 the Schleswig-Holsteinische Speciesbank was founded in Altona. The founding of the bank and the introduction of the new money had been preceded by the Danish Kurantbank's difficulties in exchanging issued banknotes at face value for full-value silver coins (see history of the Danish krone ). The Schleswig-Holsteinische Speciesbank accepted cash deposits, should give small loans and issue its own banknotes. The duchies were initially decoupled from the financial difficulties of the entire Danish state, since the banknotes issued by the Danish Kurantbank were not legal tender here.
Introduction of the Rigsbanksdaler as a result of the Danish national bankruptcy
At the beginning of the 19th century Denmark suffered from an economic crisis triggered by the Napoleonic Wars and, in particular, from a war against England that was lost during Napoleon's reign. The official Danish currency of the time was the Rigsdaler , which was minted as a speciestaler in 14 soldered silver (fineness 875/1000).
From 1806 the Danish government issued banknotes denominated in Rigsdaler Courant on a large scale through the Danish Kurantbank to finance its expenses . There was strong inflation and finally, on January 5, 1813, de facto national bankruptcy .
The newly established Danish National Bank ( Rigsbank ) issued a new currency, the Rigsbankdaler. The Rigsdaler banknotes were converted to Rigsbankdaler banknotes at a ratio of 6: 1. The banknotes issued by the Schleswig-Holsteinische Speciesbank totaling less than a million Speciestalers were paid out half in silver by the Rigsbank and half replaced by Danish government bonds.
In order to enforce the function of the Rigsbankdaler banknotes as the sole means of payment, the private Danish note banks and the Schleswig-Holsteinische Speciesbank were abolished. The value of paper money in the new currency reached its minimum of 9% in September 1813 and fluctuated strongly in the years to come.
The Rigsbankdaler was initially only used as a bill coin and as a denomination of banknotes, as the Danish state had hardly any coin silver. Rigsbankdalers were also minted in Specie in 1839 (see next section). The prerequisite was a restrictive financial and monetary policy, which slowly withdrew the outstanding banknotes, and the strong economic growth that began in the 1830s. The minting of the first Rigsbankdaler marks the point in time when parity between banknotes and minted speciestalers was achieved again. Banknotes denominated in Rigsbankdaler were again accepted for redemption at face value in silver by the Danish National Bank. This convertibility was a prerequisite for the international competitiveness of the Danish currency and thus the Danish financial center against Hamburg and the Mark Banco of the Hamburger Bank .
The Rigsbankdaler was minted in the 18½-Talerfuß and divided into 96 Rigsbankskilling . Due to the 1: 2 similarity of the coin feet between the old Speciesdaler and two Rigsbankdaler fully embossed in silver, one Rigsbankdaler resulted in 30 Schilling Schleswig-Holstein Kurant.
Replacement of the Rigsbankdaler
In 1854 , the Danish King Frederick VII had the currency renamed Rigsdaler RM (for Rigsmønt ) and the Rigsbankskillinge changed its name to Skillinge RM without any changes in value
Imprints
Rigsbankdalers with an additional value as 30 schillings from Schleswig-Holstein were minted from 1842 to 1848 by King Christian VIII in Copenhagen and Altona, and in 1849 and 1851 by Frederick VII in Copenhagen. As with the Schleswig-Holstein speciestalers, the fineness was 875 per thousand silver. The rough weight was 14.447 g, the fine weight 12.640 g.
Small coins were minted:
- 16 Reichsbank Schilling (1/12 speciestaler) in the years 1816, 1818, 1831, 1839 in silver (500/1000; 2.107 g fine),
- 8 Reichsbank Schilling (1/24 speciestaler) in the years 1816, 1818, 1819 in trillion (375/1000 silver; 1.053 g fine),
- 32 Rigsbankskilling (10 Schilling Courant) in Altona in 1842 and 1843 in silver (687/1000 silver; 4.214 g fine),
- 16 Rigsbankskilling (5 Schilling Courant) in Copenhagen in 1842 and 1844 in silver (500/1000 silver; 2.106 g fine),
- 8 Rigsbankskilling (2 ½ Schilling Courant) in Altona in 1843 in Billion (375/1000 silver; 2.106 g fine),
- 4 Rigsbankskilling (1 ¼ Schilling Courant) in the years 1841 (Copenhagen) and 1842 (Copenhagen, Altona) in Billion (250/1000 silver; 2.106 g fine).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Pfeiffer, p. 44ff
- ↑ a b c d Paul Arnold, Harald Klüthmann, Dieter Fassbender (2006) Large German coin catalog from 1800 to today. 22., revised and expanded edition 2006/2007 by Dieter Faßbender. Battenberg Verlag, Regenstauf. Pp. 423-428.
- ↑ See Bernd Sprenger (1981) Currency and Monetary Policy in Germany from 1834 to 1875. Research Institute for Social and Economic History at the University of Cologne. P. 39 f.
- ↑ Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung, Jg. 1791, Vol. 4, No. 317, p. 422 f .; available online , accessed August 15, 2013
- ↑ a b Michael Märcher (2010): Danish banking before and after the Napoleonic Wars: A survey of Danish banking 1736-1875. In Tuukka Talvio & Cecilia von Heijne: Monetary boundaries in transition: A North European economic history and the Finnish War 1808-1809. Stockholm, pp. 127-143
- ^ Johan Friderich Wilhelm Schlegel (1829) State law of the Kingdom of Denmark and the Duchies of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg, with constant consideration of the older constitution of these countries. Royal Deaf Mute Institute, p. 477 ff.
- ↑ National Banks - Historical snapshots ( Memento from June 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) www.nationalbanken.dk, accessed on: April 26, 2010
- ↑ Werner Pfeiffer: The history of money in Schleswig-Holstein. Westholsteinische Verlagsanstalt Boyens & Co., Heide in Holstein 1977, p. 69.