Altona was until 1864 the second largest city in the Danish King’s realm, in what was then the Duchy of Holstein. Today it is a suburb of Hamburg, Germany.
The mint in Altona was erected in 1771 and was closed in 1863. Throughout most of this period it played an important role in Northern European trade and payments. Huge amounts of gold and silver coins were struck in Altona for the international market. The customers were primarily merchants, merchant bankers and other businessmen from Hamburg and Altona. They often functioned as commission agents, especially for companies in London, Amsterdam, Berlin and St. Petersburg. Hamburg had one of the most significant European markets for precious metals, and large quantities were melted down or coined. There was only a small unimportant mint in Hamburg in the first half of the nineteenth century, and it was destroyed in the great city fire in 1842. Hence, the mint in Altona undertook most of the coin production, which was needed to facilitate the international trade in Hamburg.
The mint was closed in 1863, just before the war of 1864 in which the Kingdom of Denmark lost the two duchies Schleswig and Holstein, which included Altona. |
