Long Table 140. 20th Century Coinage of the German Empire: The Free Hanseatic Cities & the Colonies

Numismatist John Janeczek will discuss the coins struck in and for the Free Hanseatic Cities: Bremen, Hamburg, and Lübeck. He will analyze the problems that the German Empire was facing at the time, how the Imperial Navy and the German colonies were used to promote Imperial unity, and provide an overview of the coins struck for the colonies of German East Africa and Kiautschou.

[@CTStatz]

German Imperial era coinage is probably my favorite to collect as the lack of collectors allows for the acquisition of some really rare and beautiful specimens at rock bottom prices. For such an important era of history it’s mind-boggling that there isn’t more interest. This era is chock-full of stories relating to numismatics/economics, all which led to, of course, the post-WWI hyperinflation. One of my favorite stories has been virtually forgotten, in a nutshell:
In the 1850’s and 60’s gold from the Australian and California discoveries flooded the world markets which led to an exponential rise in its use as coinage. This led to debates within countries across the world about the adoption of the gold standard, silver standard or “bimetallism.” German economists believed that the first country in Europe to adopt a purely gold standard would dominate the coinage on the continent and wanted to be the first to dump all of their silver in exchange for gold. The problem? If they did so then all other countries (including their #1 opponent: France) would follow suit and they would only spark a sort of silver-for-gold bank run. However, they found their opportunity when they won the Franco-Prussian war, occupied Paris and demanded a massive silver indemnity in exchange for their departure. The plan was to dump all of their silver before France could finish paying the indemnity and then to dump that silver indemnity into gold as well. However, France caught wind of the plan just as Germany was rolling it out and paid the indemnity 18 MONTHS ahead of schedule! This sparked the international silver-for-gold run of the 1870’s (in my opinion a majorly overlooked element in the silver vs. gold issues of the 1880’s-1890’s USA). German itself only minted 221,810 silver coins in 1879 but 2,122,342 gold coins. The variety of German gold coins issued during this era is staggering and their artistry superb. A fascinating time period to be sure and it was great to see this lecture as information on German Imperial coinage is difficult to find.

[@MrMoritz74]

Before the german unification we have monetary system like in the United Kingdom: there are 12 Pfennig to 1 Silver-Groschen and 30 Silver-Groschen to 1 Thaler. Then Bismarck create the Mark-System of 100 Pfennig to 1 Mark in 1873/74. Greetings from Germany!