Mark (money)
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- This article is about the archaic weight of measure/currency. For other uses of mark, see the disambiguation page Mark.
Mark (from a merging of three Teutonic/Germanic languages words, Latinized in 9th century post-classical Latin as marca, marcha, marha, marcus)[1] was a measure of weight (see mark (mass)) mainly for gold and silver, commonly used throughout western Europe and often equivalent to 8 ounces. Considerable variations, however, occurred throughout the Middle Ages (see du Cange, Gloss. med. et infim. Lat., s.v. Marca for a full list).
In England the "mark" never appeared as a coin, but as a money of account only, and apparently came into use in the 10th century through the Danes. According to 19th century sources, it first equalled 100 pence, but after the Norman Conquest equalled 160 pence = 2/3 of the Pound Sterling, or 13 shillings and 4 pence.[2] In Scotland, the Merk Scots comprised a silver coin of this value, issued first in 1570 and afterwards in 1663.
In northern Germany (especially Hamburg) and Scandinavia, the Mark was a unit of account and coin worth 16 schilling or skilling.
Germany adopted the Mark as its currency following unification in 1871. This first Mark came to be known as the Goldmark, which became Papiermark later and eventually suffered hyperinflation in 1923 (see inflation in the Weimar Republic). A new Mark was introduced, called the Rentenmark (worth 1,000,000,000,000 Papiermark), swiftly replaced by the Reichsmark in 1924.
The German Mark was introduced by the western allies in their zones of occupation in 1948, with the Soviets issuing their own Deutsche Mark (often referred to as the East German Mark or Ostmark, later officially called the "Mark der DDR") later that same year.
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[edit] Modern usage
"Mark" can refer to the following currencies:
- In Germany:
- 1873 - 1914 German Goldmark, the currency of the German Empire
- 1914 - 1923 German Papiermark
- 1923 - 1924 German Rentenmark
- 1924 - 1948 German Reichsmark
- 1948 - 1990 East German Mark or Ostmark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic
- 1948 - 2001 German Mark or Deutsche Mark (D-Mark, DM), the currency of (West) Germany
- In other countries:
- Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia until 1927.
- Finnish mark or markka, the currency of Finland from 1860 until 2001.
- German New Guinean mark, the historic currency that was replaced in 1914 by the New Guinean mark after the Australian takeover.
- Namibian mark, the name of an unadopted Namibian currency unit.
- Polish marka.
- South West African mark, the historic currency that replaced the German South West African mark in South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1916 until 1918.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
