Ephraimiten
An Ephraimite (German Ephraimit, plural Ephraimiten) was a debased coin part of whose silver content was replaced with copper. Ephraimites, as they came to be called, were issued under the authority of Frederick the Great of Prussia in the Duchy of Saxony and the Kingdom of Prussia from 1756 till 1763 during the Seven Years' War. The coins were spread by merchants and soldiers in Silesia, Bohemia, Poland and Courland and traded as if they were of official silver content. In return higher value foreign coins would be received, which could be used to pay the costs of army supply. By the end of 1762 Frederick the Great abandoned this policy. After the war the traditional content standards were restored. Financing the cost of war Frederic the Great used Ephraimites to finance the Seven Years' War. He debased the currency five times. By producing and issuing such coins of low value the royal treasury could make a considerable profit. This was mainly the task of the banker and cou ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Veitel-Heine Ephraim
Veitel Heine Ephraim, 1703 – 16 May 1775 in Berlin) was jeweller to the Prussian Court, a silk entrepreneur in Potsdam, the chairman of the Jewish congregation in Berlin/Prussia, and since 1756 Mintmaster in Saxony and from 1758 also in Prussia. During the Seven Years' War Frederick the Great devalued the Prussian coin five times in order to finance the war; debased coins were produced with the help from Ephraim and Daniel Itzig, and spread outside Prussia: in Saxony, Poland, and Kurland. Ephraim and his companion Itzig became infamous for adding copper, up to 70%, so as to debase the coins, which becaime known as Ephraimiten. Heinrich Carl von Schimmelmann, Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky and Leendert Pieter de Neufville also cooperated in the debasement policy.The king's coinage policy became a key element of war financing. Life Veitel Ephraim was the fifth child of Altona-born jeweller, and elder of the Jewish Community Nathan Veitel Ephraim (1658-1748), who moved from Hamburg t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Daniel Itzig
Daniel Itzig (also known as Daniel Yoffe 18 March 1723 in Berlin – 17 May 1799 in Potsdam) was a Court Jew of Kings Frederick II of Prussia, Frederick II the Great and Frederick William II of Prussia, Frederick William II of Kingdom of Prussia, Prussia. Biography Itzig was born in Berlin. His Itzig family, family was mercantile. Itzig was a banker and a mintmaster in partnership with Veitel Heine Ephraim. Together they leased all the Mint (coin), mints in Saxony and Prussia. During the Seven Years' War they assisted Frederick the Great in debasing the Saxonian currency and spreading the Ephraimiten, not only in Saxony, but also in Silesia, Poland, Bohemia and Courland. Itzig was one of the very few Jews in Prussia to receive full citizenship privileges, as a "Useful Jew". He became extraordinarily wealthy as a consequence. Together with his son in law David Friedlander, Itzig was appointed to lead a committee which was to discuss ways to improve the Jewish civil and social ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Frederick The Great
Frederick II (german: Friedrich II.; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the Silesian wars, his re-organisation of the Prussian Army, the First Partition of Poland, and his patronage of the arts and the Enlightenment. Frederick was the last Hohenzollern monarch titled King in Prussia, declaring himself King of Prussia after annexing Polish Prussia from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772. Prussia greatly increased its territories and became a major military power in Europe under his rule. He became known as Frederick the Great (german: links=no, Friedrich der Große) and was nicknamed "Old Fritz" (german: links=no, "Der Alte Fritz"). In his youth, Frederick was more interested in music and philosophy than in the art of war, which led to clashes with his authoritarian father, Frederick William I of Prussia. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Friedrich D'or
The Friedrich d'or was a Prussian gold coin (pistole) nominally worth 5 silver Prussian thalers. It was subsequently copied by other North German states under their own rulers' names (''August-, Friedrich-August-, Christian d'or'') and valued at 4.8-5 silver North German thalers. It was used from 1741 to 1855 as a regular issue coinage, regularly-issued gold trade coin at this time, and was traded at a small agio (commerce), premium or point (mortgage), discount to its face value of five thalers in silver standard currency (''silberkurantgeld'') used in the stock exchanges and elsewhere. Around 1780, for example, the Saxon August d'or was quoted at 116 to 120 ''groschen sächsischen silberkurantgeldes'' (4.83 to 5 thalers, Saxon silver currency), with a maximum discount of 4 groschen (0.17 thaler). In the 19th century it usually had a low premium. Prussian purchase contracts or IOU, bonds payable in 5-thaler gold pistoles (rather than silver currency) were noted as payable in ''"XX ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Frederic The Great
Frederick II (german: Friedrich II.; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the Silesian wars, his re-organisation of the Prussian Army, the First Partition of Poland, and his patronage of the arts and the Enlightenment. Frederick was the last Hohenzollern monarch titled King in Prussia, declaring himself King of Prussia after annexing Polish Prussia from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772. Prussia greatly increased its territories and became a major military power in Europe under his rule. He became known as Frederick the Great (german: links=no, Friedrich der Große) and was nicknamed "Old Fritz" (german: links=no, "Der Alte Fritz"). In his youth, Frederick was more interested in music and philosophy than in the art of war, which led to clashes with his authoritarian father, Frederick William I of Prussi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tympf
The Tympf (rarely Timpf, Polish: Tymf) was a low-grade silver coin used in Poland-Lithuania, Brandenburg-Prussia, and Russia in the 17th and 18th centuries. History The coin was first struck in 1663 in Bromberg (present-day Bydgoszcz) in Polish Prussia by mint master Andreas Tympf for whom the coin is named after. The nominal value was initially 30 groschen, but it soon dropped to 18 groschen due to the low silver content. Tympfe were also minted in Brandenburg-Prussia from around 1685. After the Saxon electors took over the Polish royal crown in 1688, many tympfe in the Leipzig mint were struck as 18 groschen pieces. Then, the Prussian King Frederick II, who had conquered the city in the Seven Years' War discontinued minting in 1765. The Russian tsars minted tympfe in the Polish-Lithuanian territories they occupied from 1707 to 1709 during the Northern War and from 1759 to 1761 during the Seven Years' War. There were other mints in Königsberg and Stettin Szczecin (, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Groschen
Groschen (; from la, grossus "thick", via Old Czech ') a (sometimes colloquial) name for various coins, especially a silver coin used in various states of the Holy Roman Empire and other parts of Europe. The word is borrowed from the late Latin description of a tornose, a ''grossus denarius Turnosus,'' in English the "thick denarius of Tours". Groschen was frequently abbreviated in old documents to ''gl'', whereby the second letter was not an '' l'' (12th letter of the alphabet), but an abbreviation symbol; later it was written as ''Gr'' or ''g''. Names and etymology The name was introduced in 13th-century France as ', lit. "thick penny", whence Old French ', Italian ', Middle High German ', Low German and Dutch ' and English '' groat''. In the 14th century, it appeared as Old Czech ', whence Modern German '. Names in other modern European languages include: * sq, grosh * Church Slavonic-derived languages: Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian and Serbo-Croatian ('), Ukrain ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Face Value
The face value, sometimes called nominal value, is the value of a coin, bond, stamp or paper money as printed on the coin, stamp or bill itself by the issuing authority. The face value of coins, stamps, or bill is usually its legal value. However, their market value need not bear any relationship to the face value. For example, some rare coins or stamps may be traded at prices considerably above their face value. Coins may also have a salvage value due to more or less valuable metals that they contain. Overview The face value of bonds usually represents the principal or redemption value. Interest payments are expressed as a percentage of face value. Before maturity, the actual value of a bond may be greater or less than face value, depending on the interest rate payable and the perceived risk of default. As bonds approach maturity, actual value approaches face value. In the case of stock certificates, face value is the par value of the stock. In the case of common stock, p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fineness
The fineness of a precious metal object (coin, bar, jewelry, etc.) represents the weight of ''fine metal'' therein, in proportion to the total weight which includes alloying base metals and any impurities. Alloy metals are added to increase hardness and durability of coins and jewelry, alter colors, decrease the cost per weight, or avoid the cost of high-purity refinement. For example, copper is added to the precious metal silver to make a more durable alloy for use in coins, housewares and jewelry. Coin silver, which was used for making silver coins in the past, contains 90% silver and 10% copper, by mass. Sterling silver contains 92.5% silver and 7.5% of other metals, usually copper, by mass. Various ways of expressing fineness have been used and two remain in common use: ''millesimal fineness'' expressed in units of parts per 1,000 and '' karats'' or ''carats'' used only for gold. Karats measure the parts per 24, so that 18 karat = = 75% and 24 karat gold is considered 100% go ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and its largest city is Leipzig. Saxony is the tenth largest of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of , and the sixth most populous, with more than 4 million inhabitants. The term Saxony has been in use for more than a millennium. It was used for the medieval Duchy of Saxony, the Electorate of Saxony of the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Saxony, and twice for a republic. The first Free State of Saxony was established in 1918 as a constituent state of the Weimar Republic. After World War II, it was under Soviet occupation before it became part of the communist East Ger ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |