November 6, 2011

Germany, 1830

DSQ



Citation: Handbuch der Material- und Droguerie-Waarenkunde ... (1831) 



The 3-Rouble was the same size as the 5-Silbergroschen (= 1/6 Taler des Königreichs Preußen mit dem Bildnis Friedrich Wilhelms IV., Münzstätte Berlin, Silberprägung 5.216 g; 23 mm) which was not comparable by weight/purity.

Quotes dated European Platinum prices, but raises interesting questions about valuation.

About the application of Platinum to Coin.
By Government Councilor and Professor Hagen from Königsberg.

As far as we know from ancients and contemporaries, only gold, silver and copper have been used for coin, of when and for whom their application for this purpose came first, even Sages are vague and even lack of news that should have mentioned except for the three metals, nor ever tried a different material to the real coin notwithstanding the great variety used at different times and in different countries means of exchange and mint marks. It is all so strange, both in history as State-Economic relationship, that a new coin, which is now struck in pure Platinum, comes from Russia.

The same gave rise to the discovery of rich Platinum deposits in the Ural Mountains. Soon after the year 1819, when local gold-washings were established, one noticed partly squarish, partly lenticular metal grains of white color, which were recognized as Platinum in 1823 and, as we had become more attentive to the same, are found in a wide range at the eastern declivity of the Urals, found in Serpentine and in such abundance, so that the local yield in Platinum now seems to surpass even that which the New World alone so long provided.

But the Chamberlain Demidov, who leases several mines in the local areas of the Urals, which were previously only built on iron and copper, could a few years ago call for bids once several hundred pounds to Sell, and the imperial mines and washings also provided so much of this metal that in the past, limited only to the production of small chemical implements, USE it was anticipated that the reserved pictures exceeding the needs of infinity, and the price of Platinum would thus sink deep. To prevent this and to the Russian mines in the Platinum yield to obtain a new source of revenue and profit full, they took on a deployed application of this metal wisely, and tried it as a coin to make a tool of traffic. On 24 Apr. 1828 appeared an imperial. Russian Regulation, according to which


In 1830, the global price of platina was supposedly one-fifth the Price-of-Gold but the data was old (republished data, English source.)

Notwithstanding this right after the metal gold, half of its value is made, it is nevertheless not well suited for coinage by the amount seignorage (after a memoir of Prof. Hagen Pölitz yearbooks, 1830 Jan.) to 37%. In 1830, the Platina was five times cheaper than gold, but more costly than silver.

Citation: Handbuch für kaufleute... John Ramsay McCulloch (1835) p.507

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