Définition

• The Mark as a gold and silver weight is mentioned in Germany as early as the eleventh century. In the Nibelunglied, composed between 1180 and 1190, there is mention of zehen mare von golde, Richard I of England was ransomed for ten thousand Marks, and Shakespeare in The Comedy of Errors (ii. 1 and iii. 1) speaks of "a thousand marks in gold." It was extensively employed in Cologne during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and the Kolnische Mark in 1524 was made the accepted weight standard throughout Central Europe.

  As a money of account it was used for the payment of large sums where the small silver coins of different sizes and fineness were simply weighed. See Usualmark.

  The divisions of the Mark were: The one fourth, called Vierdung, Vierting, Firdung, or Ferto.

  The one sixteenth, called Lot.

  The one thirty-second, called Setin, and

  The one sixty-fourth, called Quentin, or Quentehen. These divisions were uniformly recognized, though the weight varied in different localities.

La source

• Frey's Dictionary (American Journal of Numismatics, Vol. 50, 1916)

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