The German Mint system inherited from that of Charlemagne the common features noticed already in the case of Florence, the Netherlands, and other countries, namely, the division of the silver libra into 20 solidi (_schillingen_), and of the solidus into 12 denarii (_pfennige_), so that 240 denarii = 1 libra. The solidus occurs (theoretically or in accompt) in both gold and silver. The gold solidus of the German system originally weighed less than the Frankish, which was 72 to the libra, while the German was 80 to the libra.
The ratio of gold to silver was 12:1, so that theoretically 1 pound silver = 1 oz. gold = 6-2/3 gold schilling.
In actual coins, 1 gold schilling = 3 silver schillingen = 36 pfennige.
Gradually this system was superseded by that of reckoning by the mark. The particular mark which obtained widest acceptance was the Cologne mark, which was thus subdivided--
Cologne mark = 8 Oz. = 16 Loth. = 64 Quintlein. = 256 Pfennige. = 512 Heller. = 4352 Eschen or Grain.
For the purpose of standard of alloy the mark was differently subdivided. Thus--
Subsequently, when the gold gulden began to be minted, and to displace in reckoning the gold solidi (6-2/3 to the oz.), a third system of reckoning by gulden, schillingen, and pfennige was adopted. But long before this had become general, the downward course of the pfennige had proceeded apace.
In 1255, in Swabia, the silver mark was minted into 660 pfennige; and in 1276, in Magdeburg, the mark of silver (15 loth fine) into 528 pfennige.
Originally heller and kreutzer were only alternative forms of the pfennige, not subdivisions of it (heller = Hällische pfennige); but the irregular course of depreciation established a difference in character.[24]
In 1407, in the Bishopric of Würzburg, pfennige were minted at a tale of 400 to the mark and 6 loth fine; Heller 544 to the mark and 4 loth fine. Fifty years later, at Nürnberg, pfennige were being minted 512 to the mark and 5-1/4 loth fine (= 1560-8/21 to the mark of fine silver), and Heller at 704 to the mark and 3-1/2 loth fine (= 3218-2/7 to the mark fine).
The course of depreciation proceeded from the unregulated, irresponsible mintings of the small states, and from base financier craft. During the fourteenth century it proceeded apace, in spite of the attempts at a reform made by the Emperor Charles IV. In 1356 he prescribed the minting of the mark of silver into 31 schillingen 4 heller (or 376 hellers), but the ordinance remained ineffectual.