Colonial Money

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soldat_m56
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Colonial Money

#1

Post by soldat_m56 » 24 Mar 2006, 18:36

I have discovered several eBay sellers that sell German colonial money, mainly DOA. I am not sure what the difference between a rubie and a heller is. If someone knows the different money denominations, it would be a great help. Were these units standard throughout all the colonies?

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#2

Post by nondescript handle » 24 Mar 2006, 20:22

Hi Nick,

Deutsch-Südwestafrika
1 Mark = 100 Pfennig (same as in Germany)

Kamerun
1 Mark = 100 Pfennig (same as in Germany)

Togoland
1 Mark = 100 Pfennig (same as in Germany)

Deutsch-Ostafrika
1897-1903 1 Rupie = 64 Pesa (1 Rupie = 1 East India Company Rupee; issued by the "Deutsch Ostafrikanische Gesellschaft")
1904-1918 1 Rupie = 100 Heller (1 Rupie = 1.333 Mark; issued by the Reich)

Deutsch-Neuguinea
1885-1911 1 Neuguinea-Mark = 100 Neuguinea-Pfennig (first issued by the "Neuguinea-Compagie" before N. became a colony)
1911-1918 1 Mark = 100 Pfennig (same as in Germany)

Kiautschou
1897-1904 1 Mark = 100 Pfennig (same as in Germany)
1905-1918 1 Mexican Silver Dollar = 100 Cent (because the Chinese used silver by weight as tender, the Mexican Dollar was one semi-standard)

HTH and regards
Mark


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soldat_m56
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#3

Post by soldat_m56 » 25 Mar 2006, 05:28

nondescript handle wrote:Hi Nick,

Deutsch-Südwestafrika
1 Mark = 100 Pfennig (same as in Germany)

Kamerun
1 Mark = 100 Pfennig (same as in Germany)

Togoland
1 Mark = 100 Pfennig (same as in Germany)

Deutsch-Ostafrika
1897-1903 1 Rupie = 64 Pesa (1 Rupie = 1 East India Company Rupee; issued by the "Deutsch Ostafrikanische Gesellschaft")
1904-1918 1 Rupie = 100 Heller (1 Rupie = 1.333 Mark; issued by the Reich)

Deutsch-Neuguinea
1885-1911 1 Neuguinea-Mark = 100 Neuguinea-Pfennig (first issued by the "Neuguinea-Compagie" before N. became a colony)
1911-1918 1 Mark = 100 Pfennig (same as in Germany)

Kiautschou
1897-1904 1 Mark = 100 Pfennig (same as in Germany)
1905-1918 1 Mexican Silver Dollar = 100 Cent (because the Chinese used silver by weight as tender, the Mexican Dollar was one semi-standard)

HTH and regards
Mark
Danke, but it brings up more questions.
So were the marks and pfennig issued in Deutsch-Südwestafrika, Kamerun, and Togoland identical to those issued in Germany? I found pictures of the Neuguinea-mark in a coin book that also described a cent piece from Kiuatschou as "a German eagle perched on an anchor with Chinese characters" (there was no image). I don't exactly understand why they used Mexican money in there, or was it only valued aagainst the mark. Also what exactly are Kiautschou cents and Ostafrika pesa (sounds Spanish)? I have seen there is even a 1/2 heller.
BTW, what about Samoa - marks and pfennig?

I actually bought a 1 Deutsch-Ostafrika heller today so I'll get to add it to my collection of various Imperial German items.

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#4

Post by nondescript handle » 25 Mar 2006, 06:02

Nick89 wrote:[...]So were the marks and pfennig issued in Deutsch-Südwestafrika, Kamerun, and Togoland identical to those issued in Germany?[...]
Yes.
Nick89 wrote:[...]I don't exactly understand why they used Mexican money in there[...]
The Mexican Dollar (= a coin of 24.433 metric gramms silver) was the standard denomination of the Spanish empire. And because of its ubiquity (Latin-American silver mines) it kept this status as the base of currency systems in South-East Asia during the 19th century.
Examples are the Japanese Yen of 1869 (= a coin of 24.433 metric gramms silver) and the Chinese Yüan of 1910 (= a coin of 24.433 metric gramms silver). The British (i.e. Hong-Kong) and French colonies also minted 24.433 metric gramms silver coins.

It was simply impractical to use a currency system that was based on 0.35842 metric gramms gold (= 1 Mark) in a region that used a system based on 24.433 metric gramms silver. So the colony Kiautschou minted siver coins of 24.433 metric gramms.
Nick89 wrote:[...]Also what exactly are Kiautschou cents and Ostafrika pesa (sounds Spanish)?[...]
I don't understand?
"Cent" = "a subunit of currency worth 1/100th of a Dollar"
"Pesa" = "a subunit of currency worth 1/64th of a Rupie"
Nick89 wrote:[...]BTW, what about Samoa - marks and pfennig?[...]
I guess so.

Regards
Mark

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#5

Post by soldat_m56 » 25 Mar 2006, 06:20

To clear things up on the cents and pesas, I was just confused because no other cents were used in the other colonies, and pesa sounded a little like peso. Just a little misunderstanding on my part. The silver coin was a German coined minted in silver and tied to the value of the Mexican silver dollar, right? I hope I'm not getting confused again!

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#6

Post by nondescript handle » 25 Mar 2006, 07:13

Nick89 wrote:To clear things up on the cents and pesas, I was just confused because no other cents were used in the other colonies, and pesa sounded a little like peso.[...]
"Pesa" is the Germanised version of "Paisa" the 1/64th subunit of the East India Company Rupee (Germanised "Rupie"; 11.66 metric grammes of silver). The first edition of "Rupie"/"Pesa" were just East India Company "Rupees"/"Paise" (plural of "Paisa") minted by the "Deutsche Ostafrikanische Gesellschaft" instead of the East India Company.

The subunit of a Dollar is a Cent, so the subunit of the "trade dollar" was called "Cent" not "Pfennig".
Nick89 wrote:[...]The silver coin was a German coined minted in silver and tied to the value of the Mexican silver dollar, right?[...]
All these currencies were tied to the value of precious metals (gold in the case of Pound Sterling, US Dollar, and Mark, silver in the case of the "trade dollars"/Mexican Dollars).
The Kiautschou Dollar and the Mexican Dollar were both tied in the same ratio to the value of silver.

To summarise: the German colonies used the Mark/Pfennig minted in Germany, unless they were part (geographical or trade-wise) of a bigger and dominant currency system (East India Company Rupee in Eastern Africa and Mexican Dollar in South-East Asia). In that case they would issue currency tied in the same ratio to precious metals as the dominant regional system and named accordingly.

Regards
Mark

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#7

Post by Reichskolonialamt » 25 Mar 2006, 11:40

I looked for an overview with pictures of all german colonial money (notes and coins), but I didn´t find something like this in the internet. Astounding...nobody did this until now? :roll:

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#8

Post by soldat_m56 » 26 Mar 2006, 03:32

I do know that paper notes were issued in the colonies, because you can buy them (if you care to spend $50 - $75 or more, which I don't). I believe the paper notes all differed depending on colony, since I think DSWA had different images on the notes than Germany did.

Reichskolonialamt:
I think you tried to find an overview, but if you go on eBay and type in the name of one of the colonies, like DOA or DSWA, you can see some coins and notes. I bought my DOA rupie off US eBay, but the seller is in Germany.

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#9

Post by Reichskolonialamt » 26 Mar 2006, 10:25

Nick89 wrote:I believe the paper notes all differed depending on colony, since I think DSWA had different images on the notes than Germany did.
I think you are wrong. I don´t know anything about differences..
Perhaps you saw some kind of "substitute money" during the WW1 ?

Here are the notes of Deutsch-Ostafrika:
http://www.deutsche-schutzgebiete.de/os ... cheine.htm

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#10

Post by papazwo » 02 Aug 2006, 20:11

Reichskolonialamt wrote:I looked for an overview with pictures of all german colonial money (notes and coins), but I didn´t find something like this in the internet. Astounding...nobody did this until now? :roll:

Hello,

look at this link http://www.kolonialgeld.de

papazwo

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