pound), was established as the Mint mark for the contracting members. For the divisional coinage (6 and 3-kreutzer pieces) a standard of 27 guldens to the mark was adopted, the details of the various fractional pieces being left to the different states. To this convention Hesse, Hamburg, and the two Hohenzollerns acceded in the following years.
This movement of South Germany gave a new impetus to the idea of Mint unification, and led to the General Mint Convention of the States of the Zollverein, agreed upon in full assembly of delegates at Dresden, 30th July 1838, and ratified also at Dresden on the 7th January 1839. The Dresden Convention was practically the first renewed attempt at Mint unification which Germany had seen since 1738. The contracting members to this general Mint convention were Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Würtemburg, Baden, Hesse, Saxe-Weimar, Eisenach, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Nassau, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, Reuss, Reuss-Schleiz, Reuss-Lobenstein, Ebersdorf, and Frankfurt.
Briefly, the articles of the convention were as follow:——
"1. The Mint mark of all these contracting states of the Customs Union shall be the Prussian Mint mark = 233.855 grms.
"2. On this common weight standard the coinages of the contracting states shall be in accordance with Page 206 the two systems in existence among the said states, viz. by thalers and groschen, according to the 14-thaler (or Prussian) system; or by gulden and kreutzer, according to the 24 1⁄2-gulden (or South German) standard. For the purpose of assimilation or equivalating, the thaler to be reckoned = 1 3⁄4-gulden, and the gulden = 4⁄7-thaler.
"3. The 14-thaler system to