
Coins of the German States: Baden
(I did not bother to add a picture this time :)
The Grand Duchy of Baden, now known as the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, was a German state ruled by a duke. The state was formed along the eastern part of the Rhine and is connected to the mountains through the Black Forest, the place of the old Brothers Grimm and Hans Christien Anderson fairy tales. It borders Bavaria to the east, Hesse to the north, Switzerland to the south, and Wurttemburg to the west. Its capital now is Stuttgart, although during the Nazi reign and German Empire it was Freiburg, although its original capital was Karlsruhe. The story of their coins tells about their Grand Dukes, their history, and everything that really happened in that state during that period.
Baden used four different coin systems from the early 1800s until the German Unification. They were the Conventionsthaler, the thaler, the gulden, and the mark. All I can really say about this is that a Gulden was 60 Kreuzer in most of Baden’s currencies except for the Mark, which was 100 pfennig to a mark same as all of the other states of that period. As for the other ones, no matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t find them. The Conventionsthaler was the official currency of the HRE, so most of the states kept using it after it went away.
The Baden mint in Karlsruhe has been striking coins since 1362 when the Margrave of Baden allowed the first coins to be struck in the state. Since Baden has never had a clear capital, the minting process has moved to many different cities over the years. In the 1820s, however, Grand Duke Ludwig decided that a modern minting facility had to be built in Karlsruhe over the old one. On February 9, 1829, the mint was inaugurated, with Ludwig himself attending the ceremony. The Karlsruhe mint is still in this historically significant building today and is one of the most environmentally friendly mints in Europe today while producing polymer coins and, combined with the Wurttemburg mint, over 40% of German euro coins.
You know how I talked about the change of design for the German Empire coins during the Unification in the 1870s, but kept a similar look? Well, Baden did the same thing. They kept the symbol for Baden on the coin for familiarity, but added the German Empire eagle. They did this for all of their coins, from their 1 pfennig to 20 mark. On some of the reverses, it has the words Grand Duchy of Baden, with the coat of arms of the state on it, but Kaiser Wilhelm on the obverse.
Bibliography
Baden | historical state, Germany | Britannica
Coins of the Grand-Duchy of Baden – Numista
Mints of Baden-Wurttemburg-mintbw.de (EN)
Baden 2 mark coin | Currency Wiki | Fandom
Comments
AC coin$
Level 6
Great intersting blog .
Kepi
Level 6
Good blog. Thanks! ; )
Longstrider
Level 6
Very informative blog. Lots of info with a great bibliography. Thanks.
Mike
Level 7
Great blog. However I'm not a fan of German coinage.. I did learn something so thanks!!
Golfer
Level 5
German coins a are great. Thanks for an interesting read.