1. Overview of currencies and coins

Nowadays most of the countries of Western Europe now use the Euro, but 300 years ago, states (especially in the German-speaking countries) were much smaller and every state had its own coinage. This page attempts to give an overview, based on the information in Paritius. Place names and currency names are given in modern spellings. There is an online currency converter available at www.pierre-marteau.com, an excellent early modern site.

It should be noted that many of the countries of Europe had a system known as "LSD" where the names of the basic units of currency, from largest to smallest, were based on Roman names: the pound (librum), shilling (solidus), and penny (denarius).

In the following tables, the values go from lowest to highest. Links on coin names go to pictures of representative coins at rustypennies.com and the Austrian money museum.

The Empire

Major commercial cities: Frankfurt am Main, Nürnberg, Augsburg, Regensburg

Name	Abbrev.	Heller	d.	Kr.	Land- münzen	Kgl./ ß	Batzen	15er	fl.	English cognate	Notes
Heller	hl.
Pfennig	d., D, dl., pf.	2								penny	(1)
Kreuzer	kr, krl.		4
½-Batzen				2
Landmünze				2.5
Kaiser-Groschen / Schilling	krgl., kgl. / ß, ßl			3						shilling
Batzen				4
"Fünfer" or double Landmüze				5
half-Örter				7.5
"Sechser"				6		2
"Fünfzehner" / "Örter"				15		5
Kopfstück				20						cf. "sovereign"
half-Gulden				30			7.5
Gulden	fl.			60			15				(2)
Reichstaler	thl.,Rthl.			90	36	30	22.5		1.5	dollar	(3)
species-Taler				120	48		30	8	2		(4)
Ducat				240		80	60		4

(1) 1 pound (Pfund) of pennies = 250 d. = 1 fl. + 1ß.

(2) The "money of account" was Gulden, Kreuzer, and Pfennige; other (mostly smaller) coins were used for actual transactions. An exception was formed by Frankfurt, which made some use of Reichsthaler. "Gulden" is related to the word "golden," and is probably also related to the Roman coin the "aureus." They are also called "florins."

(3) The Reichsthaler was purely a money of account.

(4) The species-thaler, as its name suggests, was an actual coin. Its value varied in terms of monies of account; these values are from 1709.

Other currencies in the Empire:

Bavaria:
1 Regensburger = 2 Hl.
1 gr. = 3 Regensburger
1 fl. = 84 Regensburger
1 schwarze Münze = 1 ß + 30d.; = 1 fl. + 7ß = 28 gr.

The schwarze Münze was used in Bavaria for paying rents and fees

Berlin:
1 ß = 2 Witt
1 Dutgen = 6 kr. Rheinisch
1 Stempel = 3 ß
1 Mark (mr.)= 5 Stempel
1 Rhtl. = 6 mr.

Braunschweig (Brunswick):
1 Marien-Groschen = 8d. [2-Mariengroschen coin]
1 Rhtl. = 36 Marien-Groschen

Bremen:
1 Rthl. = 72 Grot
1 groat [Grot] = 5 Schwaren [2½-Schwaren coin]

Hamburg:
1 Geßling = 1 flemish groat [Grot]
1 Lübecker ß = 12 Lübecker pennies = 2 flemish groats
1 Mark (m., ma., ml.) = 16 ßl. = 12d.
1 Rthl. = 3 Mark = 48 Lübecker ß. = 8 flemish ß. = 96 groats

Saxony:
Major commercial cities; Leipzig, Naumburg.
1 guter Groschen (ggl.) = 12 gute Pfennige
1 Rhtl. = 24 ggl.

Vienna:
1 Viennese ß = 30 dl. [Austrian penny coin]
1 Viennese ß = 1/8 fl. Rheinisch
1 Viennese fl. = 8 Viennese ß
1 Kaiser-Grosch = 12 dl. Rheinisch
1 Rhtl. = 30 Kaiser-Groschen

The Dutch Republic

Major commercial cities: Amsterdam

Name	Abbrev.	d.	st.	also known as
penning	d., pf.
deuter		2
blanc		12
stuiver	st., St.	16		Stüber (Ger.)
Gulden	fl.		20	florin
Reichsthaler	Rhtl.		50

Brabant

Major commercial cities: Antwerp.

Name	Abbrev.	grote	st.	s.	fl.	also known as
grot						groat (Eng.)
stuiver	st.	2
flemish shilling	s.		8
Gulden	fl.		20
flemish pound	l.		120	20	6
Reichsthaler	Rhtl.	96	48	8	2 2/5	patacon

Money of account in Brabant was flemish pounds, shillings, and groats.

France

Name	Abbrev.	d.	s.	also known as
denier	d.
sol	s.	12
livre	L., lb.		20	Franc

Italy

1 soldo (si., sl.)) = 12 quadrini
1 lira (l.) = 20 Soldi

Duchy of Moscow

1 kopek = 2 mosskets
1 grivna = 100 kopeks
1 ruble = 10 grivna

Poland

1 Pölchen = 9 d.
1 ß = 2 Pölchen
1 fl. = 39 ß

Spain

1 real (Rl.) = 34 maravedis (mr.)

Sweden

Sweden had various sorts of coins, silver and copper; there were three kinds of Taler (Reichstaler, silver, and copper).

The United Kingdom of Great Britain

Name	Abbrev.	d.	s.
penny	d.
shilling	s.	12
Pound sterling	L., £		20
guinea			21

Great Britain also had other coins like the ha'penny. The "sovereign" was a pound coin with a portrait of the ruler on the front. This page compares French and British coins of the ancien régime.

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2. Bibliography

Coinages

"The coinages of Renaissance Europe, c.1500." Handbook of European history, 1400-1600: late Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation. Ed. Thomas A. Brady, Jr., Heiko A. Oberman and James D. Tracy. 2 vols. Leiden: Brill, 1994. 1: 671-78.

Paritius

Paritius, Georg Heinrich. Cambio Mercatorio, oder Neu erfundene Reductiones Derer vorhemsten Europæischen Müntzen/ Welche Auf eine vorhin niemahl so kurtz und leicht gesehene Manier/ und pur allein durch zwo Zahlen/ durchgehends ineinander zu übersetzen also gelehret werden/ daß ein jeder/ so nur deß Multipliciren und Dividirens erfahren ist/ ohne mundliche Instruction hierau alle Müntzen ineinander zu reducieren erlernen kan. [...] [Regensburg]: [n.p.], [1709].

Spufford

Spufford, Peter. "Coinage and currency." Cambridge economic history of Europe. Ed. M. M. Postan and E. E. Rich. Cambridge UP, 1963. 3: 576-602.