The system was current with the Rheinischer Gulden being the most frequent Gulden-coin.Ī Gulden was divided into 15 Batzen, 20 Kaiser-Groschen, 60 Kreutzer or 240 Pfennige. The usual subdivision was based on the Kreutzer. Reichs-Gulden were the fundamental currency of accounting in southern Germany – other regions issued Gulden as well, yet calculated in Reichsthalers. The whole file is so far basically a digest of the information offered by Georg Heinrich Paritius in his Cambio Mercatorio (1709). It will conclude with a list of all those special coins accepted in Franconia at the beginning of the 18th century as evaluated at a mint convent in Nürnberg in 1709 - which will not give the complete picture but a central European perspective on the complex situation at the given moment in history. The following page will after a few introductory remarks on the three major currencies turn to local situations. Local authorities advised their citizens at what rates they should accept coins minted elsewhere. Through all the territories merchants spread their different coins. Some places had coherent systems of their own minted coins, others shared the coins of neighbouring territories. Coins issued by regional authorities continuously changed their values. While the basic currencies remained stable in their correlation – and to a good extent in their international exchange rates – an immense chaos and instability reigned underneath the broad pattern.
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Hamburg, Lübeck, Bremen and Berlin issued – different – Marcks and were dominated by the surrounding Thaler regions. Gulden were prominent in the south, Thaler had become prominent in territories in the middle, the north and the northwest. The pattern was certainly more complex than the distribution of religions. The territories of the "Sacrum Imperium Romanum", with less clarity referred to as Germany and Austria, could be divided into Thaler-, Gulden- and Marck-Regions.