SCHILLING COURANT: COIN OF HAMBURG (GERMANY)
1 schilling courant, 1790: Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg
I SCHILLING HAMBURGER COURANT: 1 schilling courant of Hamburg.
Coat of arms of Hamburg: three towers behind the city wall.
O H K: Otto Heinrich Knorre (Mint-master at Hamburg during 1761-1805).
- Silver (0.375): 18 mm - 1.12 g
- Reference price: 15.6$
COIN SCHILLING COURANT — WHERE & WHEN (coins catalog: by names & emitents)
- GERMANY (Free Hanseatic city of Hamburg, Free Hanseatic city of Lübeck, Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Danish duchies of Schleswig and Holstein — 18th-19th centuries): schilling courant = 1/48 thaler
- KINGDOM OF DENMARK (18th-19th centuries): schilling courant = 1/30 rigsbankdaler
SCHILLING COURANT as coin name.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, several countries of Northern Europe (Denmark, Norway, Germany) minted coins of various denominations with the prefix "courant": rigsdaler courant, skilling courant, gute groschen courant, schilling courant...
The largest number of types is characteristic of the schilling courant denomination, which, moreover, is most often found in modern numismatic collections.
What is this type of schilling coin? What does the term courant mean?
In the 18th century, the rigsdaler was issued in Denmark, with which the monetary units of neighboring Norway and northern German lands were closely related. The Danish currency system consisted of the Rigsdaler specie worth 120 skilling and the less valuable Rigsdaler courant worth 4/5 of the Rigsdaler specie.
In Denmark (alongside with skilling) and in neighboring now German lands (Hamburg, Lübeck, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Schleswig and Holstein) was issued schilling courant.
A strange system, given the current state of affairs. However, even a few centuries ago, confusing monetary systems, strange ratios between major currencies and exchange coins were commonplace.
The terms from economics "specie" and "courant" need to be explained. Specie, simplified, is money in coin form and indicates the value in true precious metal, while courant is the face value of a coin or note. In a time of inflation and rapidly rising and falling prices it would naturally be to the advantage to demand specie, i.e. coined money with a value in gold or silver in order not to lose the value.
After Denmark's national bankruptcy in 1813, Denmark left the currency system mentioned above in favor of the new rigsbankdaler, reduced to 1/2 rigsdaler specie.
Those who wish to understand in more detail the peculiarities of the monetary systems of the Northern European states in the mentioned period can use additional literature, for example, the following edition: "BANCO, SPECIES UND COURANT. Konrad Schneider. Koblenz 1986".
As for the etymology of the term "courant", it was borrowed from the French language. It is sometimes translated as current or standard. That is, schilling courant — standard schilling.
A bit difficult to understand...
