German mark (1871)
The gold mark (officially: just mark) was the name used for the coinage of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918. From January 1 1876 onwards, the mark became the only legal tender. The name gold mark was created later to distinguish them from the paper mark which suffered a massive loss of value through inflation.
The coins of the gold mark currency had internal value in precious metals, but were not bullion coins. The highest values were pressed in gold; the percentage of precious metal in the coins was oriented at the pound sterling, with one pound sterling = 20 mark.
Coins of the German Empire
Gold coins (900/1000 gold)
- 20 mark, 7.168 g gold
- 10 mark, 3.583 g gold
- 5 mark, 1.791 g gold
Silver coins (900/1000 silver)
Smaller values were pressed in silver, with 1 mark equalling 5g of silver.
- 5 mark, 25 g silver
- 3 mark, 15 g silver, from 1908 onwards
- 2 mark, 10 g silver
- 1 mark, 5 g silver
- 1/2 mark, 2.5 g silver
- 50 pfennig, 2,5 g silver (= 1/2 mark)
- 20 pfennig, 1 g silver, only until 1878
The 3 mark coin was introduced as replacement for the taler of the previous currency, which content of silver was more or less equal to the 3 mark coin.
Small coins
Smaller coins were pressed without content of precious metals, using bronze or nickel.
- 25 pfennig
- 20 pfennig
- 10 pfennig
- 5 pfennig
- 2 pfennig
- 1 pfennig
During World War I coins were made from aluminium and steel.
Design of the coins
Similar with the euro coin, there were lots of different pictures on the coins (2 mark to 20 mark). Every state of the German Empire could make their own picture side. Mostly the picture of the monarch of the state was used, the free towns Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck used their city insignia. The other side of the coins showed the reichsadler, i.e. the eagle insignia of the German Empire. Coins up to the 1 mark coin were designed identically in the whole empire.
Bills
In addition to coins, the German Empire currency used paper money (up to 1000 mark), issued by the Reichsbank. Bills could be exchanged into legal tender (i.e. gold coins) for their nominal value.