Legally, however, the 34-marks standard remained in force until the coalescence of the free state of Hamburg with the new imperial German system in our own days.
The question of the agio of the _Hamburg banco_ system belongs rather to the history of banking.
In brief résumé, the historic standards of the German monetary system have been as follows:--Nos. 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13 representing the systems in existence at the time of the projection of the great currency reform of 1871:--
1. Old imperial standard of 1559, based on the Reichs Münz ordnung of Ferdinand I., mark of fine silver = 8 thalers. Altered in 1622, so that 9 thalers 2 grs. = 1 mark fine silver.
2. The _Zinnaische_ standard, agreed upon by Saxony and Brandenburg at Zinna, 1667, 1 mark fine silver = 10-1/2 thaler = 15-3/4 guldens.
3. Leipzig standard or Torgau standard (see text, p. 200), mark fine silver = 18 gulden.
4. The Prussian standard, 14 thalers or 21 guldens = 1 mark fine silver (see above, p. 379).
5. Convention standard or Austrian standard, mark fine silver = 20 gulden (see above, p. 375).
6. The 24-gulden standard or new imperial standard of 1766 (see above, p. 377), 1 mark fine silver = 24 guldens.
7. The 24-1/2, or South German standard (see above, p. 378), 1 mark fine silver = 24-1/2 guldens.
8. The kronen-thaler standard, existing more or less between 1808 and 1837 in such of the states of the South as had adopted the minting of the Brabant or crown thaler-piece, 9.18 to a mark fine, and issued at 2 guldens 42 kreutzers, representing a 24-4/5-gulden standard. It was this system which called into being the 24-1/2-gulden standard, by the evolution of which it was itself completely superseded.
9. Wechselzahlung, or Wechselgeld, the bank reckoning system of Frankfort-on-the-Maine, 20-4/55 guldens = 13-21/55 thalers = 1 mark fine silver. The standard was, therefore, 4/11 lighter than the 20-gulden or convention standard.
10. The Augsburg girogeld, a system which existed till 1st July 1845, and in which the exchange with Amsterdam and Hamburg was expressed. Mark of fine silver = 15-95/127 gulden giro (100 gulden giro = 127 gulden of the convention standard). This system was displaced by the introduction of the 24-1/2-gulden standard.