Münzfuß

A Münzfuß () is an historical term, used especially in the Holy Roman Empire, for an official minting or coinage standard that determines how many coins of a given type were to be struck from a specified unit of weight of precious metal (the Münzgrundgewicht or coin base weight). The Münzfuß, or Fuß ("foot") for short in numismatics, determined a coin's fineness, i.e. how much of a precious metal it would contain. Mintmaster Julian Eberhard Volckmar Claus defined the standard in his 1753 work, Kurzgefaßte Anleitung zum Probieren und Münzen ("Brief Guide to Proving and Coining"), as follows: "The appropriate proportion of metals and the weight of the coin, measured according to their internal and external worth, or determined according to their quality, additives and fineness, number and weight, is called the Münzfuß."

Many coins do not consist exclusively of the precious metal that the respective standard is based on. Gold and silver coins are often alloyed with copper for, e.g. coin hardening. A distinction is therefore made between the fine weight (or fineness or grain) of a coin and its total weight (gross weight, German: Schrot or Rau(h)gewicht) of the coin's planchet. For example, the term Fine Mark is used when the pure precious metal content of a Mark weight is meant. The term Mark rauh ("rough Mark") was the weight of alloyed coin metal that contained exactly one Mark fein ("fine Mark").