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Bimetallism (double currency) denotes a monetary system (Currency) in which two coin metals circulate as legal tender, with a fixed official rate of exchange between them. In monometallic currencies (Monometallism), establishing the exchange rate was relatively simple: one metal (Gold or Silver) was the currency metal, and Coin of the other metal were valued on the basis of the currency metal in accordance with the gold-silver ratio at the time, which depended on metal prices. In the Holy Roman …

Like the pound, the mark in the early modern period was (1) a unit of mass, (2) a counting unit, and (3) a minted coin.(1) As a unit of mass, the mark was also the basis of coinage systems (Weights and measures). In Central Europe, the Cologne Mark ( c. 233 g) [9] gained general acceptance over other regional mark weights like the Nuremberg Mark ( c. 255 g) and the Vienna Mark ( c. 280 g), and the Esslingen  Reichsmünzordnung (Imperial Coinage Ordinance) of 1524 declared it the basic coin weight of the Holy Roman Empire. Standard mark weights were available at the office…

One of the successful, early European gold coins of the Middle Ages was the zecchino (“sequin”; from Italian  zecca/zecha, coin) minted from 1284 in Venice. The obverse shows the Doge kneeling before St. Mark, the reverse a standing Christ figure - both within a mandorla. The coins acquired the name “ducat” because of the last word of the inscription ( Sit tibi Christe datus quem tu regis iste ducatus = “O, Christ, let this duchy, which you rule, be dedicated unto you”). Venetian ducats were made of the finest gold that was possible to refine at the time, an…

The rouble (Russian rubl’) is the traditional Russian unit of currency. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the term first applied to 200 g silver ingots, which were standard weights and payment units. Roubles were not yet minted, but served as accounting units in the Russian princedoms.In Moscow, the rouble was first used only as a large unit of account equivalent to 200 denga. The Russian currency reform of 1534, instigated by Yelena Glinskaya, mother of Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible), established a harmonizing relationship between the coinage of Moscow, Nov…

1. DefinitionThe term  Kipper und Wipper was first used for a monetary crisis from 1619 to 1623 centered in the Old Empire. It came from  Geldkippe, a convenient and common assay balance (Scales) used to identify undebased coins in circulation. They would then be ausgekippt (from Low German  kippen, “to lop”) or  gewippt (“teetered”) from the balance, melted down, and reminted as debased coins. This practice was illegal, but the unequal weights of circulating coins made it common well into the 19th century, part of the speculation engaged …

In principle, any coin could become a trade coin if it became an indispensable element of payment transactions in (foreign) trade outside its original country of issue. But trade coins did not absolutely have to be legal tender in their own issuing countries. Given this knowedge, some countries created trade coins exclusively for long-distance trade (Trade, Long-distance). Important requirements were stable quality and also a stable face design for identification. It was not uncommon for the pop…

Like the ducat, the guilder originated in 13th-century Italy. It was derived from the coin minted by the city of Florence, also called a florin (Ital. fiorino), on which the lily, the emblem of the city, was depicted, along with John the Baptist. Initially it consisted of fine gold and weighed about 3.54 grams. The florin spread rapidly and after 1325 was also minted in Hungary and after the mid-14th century in the Holy Roman Empire as well. After the Rhenish Coinage Union was established (1385/1386) by the electors of …

1. IntroductionThe Reichsmünzordnungen (Imperial Coin Ordinances) were the regulations adopted at the Diets of Esslingen (1524) and Augsburg (1551 and 1559;  Reichstag) to unify the coinage of the Holy Roman Empire. Such a union had become necessary because the haphazard changes made to the Münzfuß (monetary standard, literally “coin foot”) – that is, the number of coins to be struck from a mass unit of metal – by coin masters of individual territories were causing economic damage to trade and industry. The Reichsmünzordnungen formed part of the program of imperial ref…

The term pound (from Latin  pondus, “weight”) can refer to both a unit of weight (Weights and measures) and a currency unit. As a currency unit, the pound was based originally on the weight of a specific quantity of coins. Such pounds were not actually minted as coins until the late Middle Ages; as counting units, they long served as coin of account, closely related to the counting unit of the mark, which as a rule had the value of half or two-thirds of a pound. In the course of the Middle Ages, on the European continent various mark weights became prevalent as standard monetary units. Curr…

As long as monetary value depended on precious metal content in the early modern period, there was a risk even for the smallest copper coins of debasement, that is, an erosion of precious metal content while the nominal value remained unchanged. Gresham's Law, named for (if not actually formulated by) the English merchant and founder of the London Stock Exchange, summed up the general trend in coin money: “Bad money drives out good” [5]. The chief reasons for the displacement of coins with high precious metal content by those of reduced purity were rising pr…

In the 14th and 15th centuries in the Old Empire, there were effective monetary unions based on agreements among individual princes and cities. In 1348 the Rhenish Coinage Union was formed by the four Rhenish electors, followed by the Wendish Coinage Union of the four Hanseatic cities of Lübeck, Lüneburg, Hamburg, and Wismar, after Hamburg and Lübeck had already entered into a monetary union in 1255, which lasted until 1873 [4]. Along the Upper Rhine, the  Rappenmünzbund (“Rappen Coinage Federation”) was formed around 1400 [3]. Coinage unions in Swabia, the Lake Constance …

Monometallism is the use of a metallic currency based on one (and only one) metal.Until World War I, the states of Europe had metallic currencies, even though since the mid-19th century paper money backed by precious metal had also been in circulation, since its use was more convenient. But as long as there was a legal obligation to redeem the paper money for precious metal, it had to be convertible into precious metal coinage. As illustrated by a double standard or bimetallism, the linkage of gold and sil…

Today  taler (or  taler  coin) serves as a generic term for a series of large silver coins (Coin, silver; Coin) minted since the late 15th century when silver production began to surge in Central Europe, especially in Tyrol, the Ore Mountains of Bohemia and Saxony, and the Harz. The first talers were issued by Archduke Sigismund as Count of Tyrol in 1484/1486, when he had silver equivalents (first half, then whole) to the gold guilder minted, which were therefore also called guldiners or guldengros…

A coin of account is a monetary unit used only administratively and only for purposes of calculation or measurement. This distinguishes it from minted specie coins, which have purchasing power and serve concretely as media of exchange. The coins of account in use from the Middle Ages until the 18th century and to some extent into the 19th made it possible to record the prices of goods and the extent of payment transactions over long periods of time uniformly and in relatively long-lived units despite the multiplicity of early modern currencies,Historians working with archival mate…

The monetary history of Europe (Money economy) recognizes a variety of gold and silver coins called crowns, with diverse roots. The earliest is the French gold crown ( couronne d’ or), which was first minted in 1385 with a crowned shield with fleurs-de-lis on the obverse and initially contained 5.55 g of fine gold. Its predecessor was the gold écu d’or (“gold shield”) first minted in 1337. After repeated changes of weight, in 1475 under King Louis XI the couronne d’or with a troy weight of 0.963 g, a normal gross weight of 3.496 g, and a net weight of 3.367 g was minted (Co…

Various coins have been minted with the denomination of franken, or  franc (the origin of the word is unclear, presumably from “France”) . As the name indicates, the coins originated in France; the oldest are 14th-century French gold coins. The French king John II authorized the  franc à cheval (with the figure of a king on horseback), along with other gold coins; and his successor Charles V added the  franc à pied (with the figure of a standing king), valued at a  livre tournois (“Tournois pound,” from Latin  libra). Regulations stipulated that they be made of pure gold wit…

The phrase token coinage refers to coins of slight value and limited validity as media of exchange, whose metal value is less than their face value (see Value, monetary). The term contrasts with  currency coinage, that is, coins that by law have unlimited status as legal tender, consisting of the metal that provides the standard for the currency of the country in question and whose face value and metal value should be as close together as possible. The German term Scheidemünze (from scheiden, “separate”) itself suggests that it should enable buyers and sellers to comp…

The silver  peso de a ocho (Spanish  peso, “weight”), equivalent to eight reals ( reales) in the Spanish colonies in the Americas, was probably the most widely-minted coin of the early modern period, and in Spain and its former American colonies it gave way to new units of  currency only in the 19th century. It was also a popular trade coin that circulated worldwide. The peso  de a ocho was the product of a currency reform in the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand of Aragón and Isabella of Castile, and it was first minted - in small quantities - …

The (English) gold sovereign (also  souverain d’or) was an important coin from the 15th century until it was superseded in 1612 by a  souverain of the Spanish Netherlands. Re-introduced in the 19th century, it became the main gold coin of the British Empire. It was first minted in 1489 during the reign of Henry VII of England (1485-1509), as a gold coin at a value of one pound of silver money at 20 shillings. The obverse bore the image of the reigning monarch, the eponymous sovereign, as minted coins continued to do until around 1625. The sovereign weighed 15.55 grams a…

1. ConceptThe coin (from Latin  cuneus via OF  coing, “wedge,” i.e. the wedge-shaped die used to stamp metal) was long synonymous with money in the early modern period (Money economy), although even in the Middle Ages there were some forms of cashless transaction (Payment transactions), such as bill of exchange, giro transactions, and securities like bonds of debt (obligations). The first forms of paper money came into use from the second half of the 17th century, first in Sweden after 1661. Until long…