APPENDIX V

particular mark which obtained widest acceptance was the Cologne mark, which was thus subdivided— Page 361

For the purpose of standard of alloy the mark was differently subdivided. Thus—

Gold alloy weight— 1 mark= 12 carats = 288 grs. (12 x 24). Silver alloy weight— 1 mark= 16 loth = 288 grs. (16 x 18).

Subsequently, when the gold gulden began to be minted, and to displace in reckoning the gold solidi (6 2⁄3 to the oz.), a third system of reckoning by gulden, schillingen, and pfennige was adopted. But long before this had become general, the downward course of the pfennige had proceeded apace.

In 1255, in Swabia, the silver mark was minted into 660 pfennige; and in 1276, in Magdeburg, the mark of silver (15 loth fine) into 528 pfennige.

Originally heller and kreutzer were only alternative forms of the pfennige, not subdivisions of it (heller = Hällische pfennige); but the irregular course of depreciation established a difference in character.¹