![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() In a time of inflation and rapidly rising and falling prices it would naturally be to the advantage of one pary to demand specie, i.e.coined money with a value in gold or silver in order not to lose the value due The abbreviations in use reflect failry closely the coins, for example, sp (specidaler), rd (fiksdaler) etc. Specie, in short, is money in coin form and indicates the value in true metal, while courant, the face value of a coin or note. The terms specie and courant need to be explained here. Therafter for almost a century the value of the riksdaler varied in value frequently from a low value of 66 Danish skilling in1602 to a high of 100 Danish skilling in1624, but from 1625 to 1794 the value stood firm at 96. At the same time the riksdaler was equal to 2 lodd in silver.Īfter the war which raged between 1563-1570, the riksdaler was equal to 4 mark and equal to 64 skilling (Danish) and by the ordince of June 16, 1572, the riksdaler was devalued by half: 1 riksdaler equals 2 marks equals 32 (Danish) skilling. From 1537 the unit of currency was the riksdaler species equal to 3 mark, each of which was equal to 16 (official Danish) skilling, or 1 riksdaler equals 3 mark equals 48 skilling. The monetary reform, introduced by Christian III (1503-1559), brought a modern system of coinage to Norway and Denmark. In the fourteen and fifteenth centries, for example, coins struck by merchants of Lübeck, Germany, were in common use.ĭuring Christian II's reign the skilling was introduced based on the Lübeck model with 16 skilling to 1 mark and 1 skilling equal to 3 hvidd equal to 6 blaffert (a blaffert was a 2 penning piece) equal to 12 penning. In the system of weighing coins for their precious metal content, foreign coins were often used, even until the middle of the nineteenth century. Under the Danish Union the Norwegian coinage should have followed the Danish system according to the ordinances of 15, but the Norwegian archbishops had regained their mint privileges in 1478 and exercised them rather often, especially in the early sixteenth century. In the very unsettled medieval period, king employed mintmasters to debase the coinage to finance their armies. In the second half of the century, the Cologne mark was equals to a half skalpund equals 16 lodd equals 64 kvintin. In the 1500s the mark was also divided into 16 lodd (a lodd was a weight of silver equal to 14.6246 grams, or, in gold, 15,566 grams). The term for the "hvidd," a very small silver coin, still occurs in the language-worth "ikke en hvidd" as "not worth a red cent." One hvidd was equal to 4 penning, or 1 mark equal 16 skilling equals 48 hvidd. At the close of the Middle Ages the skilling was in use instead of the øre and the ertug, so that 1 mark was equal to 16 skilling, each of which was equal to 3 hvidd. ![]() In the 1400s the mark was worth 192 penning in East and North Norway, while in West Norway, 216. The poorest had less than 10 per cent silver while the best 90 per cent, but it appears that the marks were accepted at face value, indicating a strong central authority.įrom Harald Hardråde up to the 1500s, the mark system was in full force with 1 mark equal to 8 øre equal to 24 ertug (or ørtung) equal to 240 penning.īut the value of the mark came to fluctuate. He circulated a coin called a mark, originally meaning one "pound" of "markete" (marked) silver. The establishment of a national currency occurred under Harald Hardråde (1047-1066). Imports and local coins, as well as hacksilver (broken up silver objects), were used as means of payment according to weight. The oldest coins struck in Norway are those struck just before the year 1000 and embossed with Olav Tryggvasson's name. During the Viking exploration, however, importation increased and Arabian, German and English coins were introduced. These plus Byzantine and Frankish coins were the only ones used. The oldest coins found i Norway are Roman denarii (from which the English word penny and Norwegian penning are derived) from the first century B.C. Most of us are familiar with the present decimal system, that of a krone divided into 100 øre, but that is only one of a series of monetary systems with which our ancestors were familiar.Īlthough very few of us will find written records for ancestors before 1600, perhaps some background information on early currency is not superfluous some of the terms are found i later usage. Norway, like other countries, has gone through several monetary systems in its history. Official documents were sometimes issued for a fee. A genealogist working with Norwegian records frequently comes upon references to currency in probate records, tax assessments, and censuses. ![]()
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