Mark (currency)

The mark was a

As of 2022,[update] the only circulating currency named "mark" is the Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark.

List of currencies named "mark" or similar

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2015)

"Mark" can refer

• to one of the following historical German currencies:
  • Since the 11th century: the Kölner Mark, used in the Electorate of Cologne;
  • 1319: the Sundische Mark,
    minted and used by the North German Hanseatic city of Stralsund and various towns in Pomerania
    ;
  • 1502: the Lübische Mark, a uniform coinage for the Wends (Germania Slavica) Hanseatic cities of Lübeck, Hamburg, Wismar, Lüneburg, Rostock, Stralsund, Anklam, among others, who joined the Wends Coinage Union (Wendischer Münzverein);
  • 1502: the Courant Mark, a uniform coinage in North German Hanseatic cities, part of the Wends Coinage Union (Wendischer Münzverein), and forerunner of the Reichsmark and the Deutsche Mark;
  • 1619–1873: the mark banco of Hamburg;
  • 1873–1914: the
    German gold mark
    , the currency of the German Empire;
  • 1914–1923: the
    German Papiermark
    ;
  • 1923–1948: the
    German Rentenmark
    ;
  • 1924–1948: the
    German Reichsmark
    ;
  • 1944–1948: the military mark of the Allied occupying forces;
  • 1947: the Saar mark;
  • 1948–1990: the East German mark;
  • 1948–2002: the
    German mark
    , also called Deutsche Mark or D-Mark, and abbreviated DM;
• or to one of the other following historical currencies:
  • the
    merk Scots
    , an early-modern Scottish silver coin;
  • the Swedish mark, minted 1532–1776 but used as counting unit from medieval time;
  • 1860–2002: the Finnish markka;
  • 1884–1911: the New Guinean mark;
  • 1884–1915: the German South West African Mark;
  • 1916–1918: the South West African mark;
  • 1917–1924: the
    Polish mark
    ;
  • 1918–1927: the Estonian mark;
• or, since 1998, to the Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark.

England and Scotland

In England the "mark" never appeared as a coin but was only a

In northern Germany (especially Hamburg and Lübeck) as well as in much of trade in the Baltic region, the customary unit of account was the mark valued at 1⁄3 of a Reichsthaler. Marks were rarely minted, though. Instead, schilling coins were minted with 48 schillings representing one Reichsthaler; i.e. 16 schillings equaled one mark.

In an attempt to prevent

In 1924, the Reichsbank stopped providing unrestricted credit against worthless financial bills, and pegged its new currency, the Reichsmark, to the stable Rentenmark. The Reichsbank rationed its lending, so that the Reichsmark remained at par with the stable Rentenmark. The currencies continued to exist in parallel, and were both abbreviated RM.

The original intention was to withdraw the Rentenmark by 1934, but the National Socialist government decided to continue to use the Rentenmark, which enjoyed a considerable trust due to its stability. Nevertheless, the National Socialist government deliberately overissued both currencies to finance infrastructure investments by the state, and expanded government employment and expenditure on items such as armaments. By 1935, laws limiting increases of prices, wages, and rents were needed to suppress inflation. Enormous extra taxes, charged on real estate owners (RM 1 bn in 1936), and on the occasion of the anti-Semitic November Pogrom (Kristallnacht), on Jewish Germans (RM 1 bn in 1938), could not stabilise the economy for long. The start of World War II was used to justify general price controls and rationing. Thus inflation was officially hidden, and was expressed as ever-growing aggregate savings of the population, which could only spend its earnings on limited rations of goods at artificially low prices. However, inflation could clearly be seen in the rising prices on the black market. During the war, the German economy was supported by war booty taken from occupied countries, continuing to some extent until 1944. By the end of the war, the oversupply of banknotes and coins (RM 3.9 bn in 1933, RM 60 bn in 1945) became obvious, openly showing up in inflated black market prices.

From 1944, the Allies printed occupation marks (also called military marks), decreeing that these were to be accepted at par with the Rentenmark and the Reichsmark. Banknotes worth 15 to 18 bn military marks were issued for purchases by the occupying forces in Germany, and for soldiers' wages. In June 1948, military marks were demonetised as part of the West German and East German currency reforms.

In June 1947, the French occupying force in the

On 21 June 1948, the Deutsche Mark (German mark) was introduced by the Bank deutscher Länder in the western zones of occupation in Germany, which then formed West Germany.

On 23 June 1948, the Deutsche Emissions- und Girobank ("German bank of issue and giro centre") of the Soviet occupation zone (which later formed East Germany) followed suit, issuing its own Deutsche Mark (colloquially referred to as the East German mark or Ostmark), later officially called Mark der Deutschen Notenbank (1964–1967) and then Mark der DDR (1968–1990). It was replaced by the (West) German mark when Germany was reunified in 1990.

Replacement by the euro

The German mark was replaced by the euro, first as an accounting currency on 1 January 1999, at a conversion rate of 1.95583 marks per euro. Thereafter, the mark-denominated notes and coins represented the euro at that conversion rate, and remained legal tender until 1 January 2002, when they were replaced by euro notes and coins.

Germany mints its own German euro coins, but all euro coins are legal tender throughout the Eurozone.

The remaining

See also

• Mark (unit)
• Coins of the pound sterling
• Markland

Notes