Coat of arms of Lübeck
History
Lübeck is named after the Slavic settlement of Liubice (which means 'lovely') that existed close to the current town from the 8th century. Apparently Liubice was too lovely for the neighbouring pagan tribe Rani to bear, and they razed the town to the ground in 1128. In 1143 a new castle and town was built on Lübeck's current location. It was subsequently part of the Duchy of Saxony, County of Holstein and the Kingdom of Denmark until it became an Imperial Free City of the Holy Roman Empire in 1226.
As the town was ordered to be ruled by a council of 20 townspeople who were mostly merchants, the city's trade grew rapidly. In 1358 the Hanseatic League was established to align the trading interests of many towns from London to Nowgorod in Russia, and Lübeck was dubbed the Queen of the Hansa. But from the 15th century Lübeck started to decline due to wars with Denmark. A shift of focus on transcontinental trading from the 16th century contributed to further decline and the Hansa lost its importance.
Lübeck became protestant in the 16th century, but it did not participate in the bloody Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). During the Napoleonic Wars it was briefly annexed by the French Empire between 1811 and 1814 and after Lübeck became a souvereign member state of the German Confederation.
The German Confederation (1815-1866) with Lübeck marked as HL in the east of Holstein.
In 1871 Lübeck became part of the German Empire but retained some of its autonomy. Eventually its status of a free city was abolished by the Nazis in 1937 in a big administrative reform, but allegedly also because Hitler despised the city after it refused to have him campaign there in 1932. After World War 2 Lübeck became part of Schleswig-Holstein, and was located only a few kilometers from the inner German border.
Prince-Bishopric of Lübeck
Just north of the city of Lübeck two pieces of land formed the Prince-Bishopric of Lübeck which was an independent ecclesiastical state within the Holy Roman Empire from 1180 until 1806. Although its main seat was in Lübeck the residence of the prince-bishop was in the small town of Eutin. After the Napoleonic Wars these territories were not merged with Lübeck but instead ceded to the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg.
Currency and coins
Lübeck minted its first coins in 1159. Back then the Carolingian monetary system was in place, with 240 Pennies (Pfennige) originally constituting 1 Pound of silver. Over the centuries the weight of the Pfennige was reduced until it more or less reached 240 Pfennige per Cologne Mark, which was a weight unit of approximately equal to 234 grams.
In 1255 the cities of Hamburg and Lübeck agreed to set the weight of the Pfennig to 1/680 of a Cologne Mark, or in other words 34 Schillinge to the Mark. A Schilling was a unit for 12 Pfennige but not yet used as a denomination for a single coin. The same goes for the Mark worth 16 Schillinge, not to be confused with the Cologne Mark which represented a fixed weight. In Lübeck the units of account were therefore 1 Mark = 16 Schillinge = 192 Pfennige, or in other notation 1 Ml = 16 ßl = 192 dl (the 'l' stands for Lübisch, the adjective of Lübeck).
From 1340 Goldgulden coins of 3.5 grams of almost pure gold were minted. With a gold silver ratio of 10:1 and after multiple devaluations 810⅔ Pfennige per Mark a fair value of the Goldgulden could be estimated at close to 10 Schillinge, but would increase in value over time (32 ßl. in 1461 and 35 ßl. in 1506).
Wendish Monetary Union (1379-1569)
In 1379 a monetary union was established to harmonise the money of several cities in Northern Germany, of which Lübeck, Hamburg, Wismar and Lüneburg were the most prominent ones. It included the minting of Witten which were worth 4 Pfennige. In 1410 Blaffert or Plappert of 2 Pfennige were introduced, and from 1461 coins of 1 and 2 Schillinge were added.
Lübeck Mark alongside the Thaler
In 1566 many states in the Holy Roman Empire started following a system of the Reichsthaler of 24 Groschen, which meant the end of the Wendish Monetary Union as neighbouring states stopped accepting Schilling coins. Hamburg and Lübeck however remained on the Mark = 16 Schilling = 192 Pfennige standard, with fluctuating values for the Reichsthaler and Gulden.
Lübeck minted coins in all kinds of standards, but from 1620 the generally accepted system was based on Thaler = 3 Mark and Gulden = 2 Mark. Lübeck followed the imperial reforms of 1667 (10½ Thaler = 1 Cologne Mark) but from the late 17th century it started to follow th3 Danish Daler system of 11⅓ Daler per Cologne Mark, which led to the Mark Courant which was introduced in 1726.
Mark Courant (1726-1821)
The vicinity of Schleswig-Holstein which was part of the Holy Roman Empire but also in personal union with Denmark, brought about a monetary agreement to unify the currencies of Denmark and parts of Northern Germany. It was based on the Mark Courant of which there were 34 in a Cologne Mark. The Danish Thaler or Daler was 3 Mark. The old subdivisions in Schilling and Pfennige remained.
Although the Mark Courant was the unit of account, some coins were still minted under the old Reichsthaler standard.
Integration with the Prussian Thaler (1821-1873)
In 1821 the Mark Courant was slightly adjusted to 1/35 of a Cologne Mark to integrate it into the widely adopted Prussian Thaler system of 14 Thaler per Cologne Mark. The Thaler was therefore 2½ Mark Courant = 40 Schilling Courant. Lübeck ceased minting coins in 1801 and used Hamburg and Prussian coins instead.
German Mark (1873-date)
After the unification of Germany the Mark Courant of Hamburg was replaced by the German Mark at a rate of 1⅕ Mark Courant per German Mark. One can say that the Mark Courant of Hamburg and Lübeck gave its name to this new unified German currency.
Unlike other states of Germany it did not produce any coins for itself, except when in 1901 a 2 Mark coin in the name of Lübeck was minted in Berlin in a very low mintage.
Catalogue
Royal mint of Lübeck (1159-1225)
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/lubeck_royal_mint-1.html
Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck (1225-1935)
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/lubeck_free_hanseatic_city-1.html
Bishopric of Lübeck (1180-1806):
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/lubeck_bishopric-1.html
