MARK: COIN OF ESTONIA
1 mark, 1922: Republic of Estonia
EESTI VABARIIK: Republic of Estonia.
1 MARK.
Coat of arms of Estonia (Lesser Arms): golden shield with three left-facing blue lions with red tongues in the middle.
The history of the coat of arms of Estonia dates back to the 13th century, when the Danish king Valdemar II Valdemarsen presented this coat of arms to the city of Tallinn, later the coat of arms was already used by the Duchy of Estonia (Danish Estonia). The gifted coat of arms was actually a copy of the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Denmark, of which medieval Estonia was a part. The difference between the Estonian coat of arms and the Danish coat of arms is the absence of hearts and crowns on the heads of lions on the coat of arms of Estonia.
Coin design by engraver Boris Krümmer.
Mint: Aron Hirsch HKM (Berlin, Germany).
Mintage: 5.024.831.
An interesting observation: circulating Estonian coins, both from the beginning of the 20th century and later, are characterized by the most primitive, simple, but strict, Nordic design (for example: the Estonian sent of 1929 or the Estonian kroon of 2003). Practically all of them are devoid of redundant design solutions.
- Copper-nickel: 18 mm - 2.5 g
- Reference price: 8.5$
COIN MARK — WHERE & WHEN (coins catalog: by names & emitents)
- REPUBLIC OF ESTONIA (1922-1926): mark = 100 penni (without coins)
- ESTONIA UNDER SWEDISH RULE (16th-17th centuries): mark = 192 penning = 4 ferding
- LIVONIA, 16th-18th centuries (Duchy of Livonia + Swedish Livonia + Livonian Confederation + Free city of Riga): mark = 4 ferding
- KINGDOM OF DENMARK (16th-18th centuries): mark = 16 skilling = 1/6 rigsdaler
- KINGDOM OF NORWAY (16th-18th centuries): mark = 16 skilling
- KINGDOM OF SWEDEN (16th-18th centuries): mark = 1/6 riksdaler
- GERMANY, 16th-21th centuries (German states + German Reich + German Democratic Republic + Federal Republic of Germany): mark = 100 pfennig
- GERMAN NEW GUINEA (1894-1895): mark = 100 pfennig
MARK as coin name. If you wish, you can find several versions of the origin of the name of the coin mark. It is not known which of them is correct. Therefore, I will allow myself to assume that this version is the most reliable (at least, I like it). — In the 8th century, the king of the Franks, Charlemagne, carried out a revolutionary monetary reform. A new coin rate was introduced, at which 240 deniers were minted from a pound of silver. The new pound received the name "Charlemagne's pound" or "Carolingian pound" and weighed about 408 grams. When weighing new coins, special reference weights were used, on which special symbol — mark (Marca, Marcha, Marha, Marcus) was applied to certify authenticity and accuracy. Such weights began to be called mark. Later, the eponymous measure of the weight of precious metals and coins appeared, which, in fact, gave the name to the coin "mark" that first appeared in the 16th century on the shores of the Baltic Sea.
The most famous in the world, although not the oldest, mark as a coin is German ("Deutsche Mark"). In numismatics and bonistics, in addition to the marks of the German states, the German Empire, the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany, the following varieties are also considered separately: reichsmark and rentenmark (no coins; only banknotes).
It is also worth mentioning the existence in the recent past of a Finnish variety of mark — markka.
