Historical Sketch

In 962, Otto I united the German and Roman kingdoms in personal union and created the Roman Empire with papal legitimation. In the 12th century the name Holy Roman Empire was created, in the 15th century the unofficial addition "of the German Nation" became common. The Roman Emperor had no direct territorial sovereignty. Since the Golden Bull of the Diet of Nuremberg in 1356, the Empire was an electoral monarchy, in which originally 4 secular rulers (King of Bohemia, Duke of Saxony, Duke of Brandenburg and the Count Palatine of the Rhine) and 3 ecclesiastical rulers (Bishop of Mainz, Bishop of Cologne, Bishop of Trier) elected the candidate. The body of the so-called electors changed in the course of time. Since 1452, except for the period 1742-1745, all emperors were from the House of Habsburg-Austria.

The Holy Roman Empire (of the German Nation) was abolished by Napoleon in 1806. For ten years thereafter, there was no longer a common state structure, just the (Napoleonic) Confederation of the Rhine and a few German States. The 1815 Vienna Congress created the German Confederation as the successor to the empire, comprising the German states and Habsburg Austria. Germany was re-ordered in 1866 under Prussian leadership. Austria was ousted, and the North German Confederation was created without the four southern states of Baden, Bavaria, Hesse, and Württemberg. In 1871 finally, the German Empire was proclaimed, in which the constituent states retained formal autonomy under the sovereignty of the emperor.

Monetary History Overview

The monetary sovereignty Holy Roman Empire rested with the constituent states, the emperor did not have any such rights. Throughout time, several efforts were made to regulate specie coinage and the weight units. The Imperial Diet of Esslingen in 1524 established the Cologne mark as reference weight for precious metals in which all future coinage standards would be expressed. The 1566 Imperial Diet of Augsburg defined the Thaler as the principal imperial silver coin and standardized the golden Ducat. In the mid-18th, three coinage areas emerged within the Empire, Northern Germany, Southern Germany and Habsburg Austria, with different principal silver specie coins.

In 1750, the standardization of silver specie in Northern Germany was pushed forward by Prussia. The Northern German (Prussian) Thaler, at 14 pieces per Cologne mark of fine silver, displaced earlier Thaler standards. In the Napoleonic Wars, Prussia became dominant throughout Northern Germany and enforced the adoption of its accounting standard. Subsidiary coinage of the Prussian territories was standardized in 1826 but remained diverse elsewhere, even if the Thaler was adopted as specie coin. The Dresden Coinage Union (Münzkonvention) of 1839, which aligned the Northern and Southern German accounting standards, did not alter the Thaler weight. The 1857 Vienna Coinage Union (Münzvertrag) adopted metric units instead of the Cologne mark and aligned the two German accounting standards with the Austrian one. The weight of the Thaler, afterwards called "Vereinstaler", was reduced by about 0.2%. After the Prussian-Austrian war, the Vienna Coinage Union was dissolved and replaced by German Customs Treaty (Zollvertrag) of 1867. Afterwards, the Northern and Southern German coinage standards remained unchanged until the foundation of the German Empire in 1871.

In 1753, Bavaria and Habsburg Austria concluded a Coinage Treaty (Münzkonvention) to adopt a common coinage standard based on the Thaler at 10 pieces per Cologne mark of fine silver, so-called "Konventionstaler", together with the half Thaler called Guilder. Since the new accounting standard was at odds with the subsidiary coinage circulating in the Southern German states, the Southern German Guilder at 24 pieces per Cologne mark of fine silver got created, about 17% lighter than the Austrian Guilder. Coinage in Southern Germany was never unified to the same extent as Northern Germany since there was no dominating power, and this did not concern only the subsidiary coins. During the 19th century, the Brabant Thaler (Kronentaler) had become increasingly popular, after it had flown in through trade from the Austrian Netherlands where it had been created in 1793. It was slightly over-valued and therefore gradually displaced the full-valued specie coins. At the Munich Coinage Union (Münzkonvention) of 1838 the Guilder's weight was lowered by about 2%, which on one hand rectified the valuation of Brabant Thaler, on the other hand facilitated the alignment with Northern German Thaler, which was codified in the 1839 Dresden Coinage Union (Münzkonvention). The 1857 Vienna Coinage Union (Münzvertrag) adopted metric units instead of the Cologne mark and aligned the two German accounting standards with the Austrian one. The weight of the Guilder, afterwards called "Vereinsgulden", was reduced by about 0.2%. After the Prussian-Austrian war, the Vienna Coinage Union was dissolved and replaced by German Customs Treaty (Zollvertrag) of 1867. Afterwards, the Northern and Southern German coinage standards remained unchanged until the foundation of the German Empire in 1871.

A few German states did not join the various coinage unions of the 19th century. Mecklenburg had adopted a different Thaler standard than Prussia in 1763. Although it aligned with the Prussian Thaler in 1848, Mecklenburg never joined the German monetary systems. The port cities of Hamburg and Bremen were using accounting systems without actually issuing specie coins. The Hamburg Mark was a silver standard, while the Bremen Thaler was the only gold standard used before the introduction of the German Reichsmark in 1871.

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