The Tympf (rarely Timpf, or ) was a low-grade silver

coin A coin is a small object, usually round and flat, used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to facilitate trade. They are most often issued by ...

used in Poland-Lithuania, Brandenburg-Prussia, and

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in the 17th and 18th centuries.

History

The coin was first struck in 1663 in Bromberg (present-day

Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz is a city in northern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Kuyavia. Straddling the confluence of the Vistula River and its bank (geography), left-bank tributary, the Brda (river), Brda, the strategic location of Byd ...

) in

Polish Prussia Royal Prussia (; or , ) or Polish PrussiaAnton Friedrich Büsching, Patrick Murdoch. ''A New System of Geography'', London 1762p. 588/ref> (Polish: ; German: ) became a Province (Poland), province of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, which ...

by mint-master Andreas Tympf, for whom the coin takes its name. The nominal value was initially 30 groschen, but it soon dropped to 18 groschen due to the low silver content. Tympfe were also minted in Brandenburg-Prussia from around 1685. After the Electors of Saxony took over the Polish royal crown in 1688, many tympfe in the

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mint were struck as 18-groschen pieces. The Prussian King Frederick II, who had conquered the city in the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prus ...

, discontinued minting in 1765. The Russian tsars minted tympfe in the Polish-Lithuanian territories they occupied from 1707 to 1709 during the Northern War and from 1759 to 1761 during the Seven Years' War. There were other mints in

Königsberg Königsberg (; ; ; ; ; ; , ) is the historic Germany, German and Prussian name of the city now called Kaliningrad, Russia. The city was founded in 1255 on the site of the small Old Prussians, Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teuton ...

and

Stettin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major seaport, the largest city of northwestern Poland, and se ...

. After the

partitions of Poland The Partitions of Poland were three partition (politics), partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place between 1772 and 1795, toward the end of the 18th century. They ended the existence of the state, resulting in the eli ...

of 1772-1795, the coin was soon replaced by other currencies. A total of around six million of these coins were issued, fetching over two million guilders. Because of its low value, especially in the years before the partition of Poland, the tympf was considered in Poland as a symbol of the poor state of the country. There is a saying: {{lang , pl , Dobry żart tymfa wart (A good joke is worth a tympf).

Literature

Friedrich von Schrötter (ed.) with N. Bauer, K. Regling, A. Suhle, R. Vasmer, J. Wilcke: Dictionary of numismatics. De Gruyter, Berlin 1970 (reprint of the original 1930 edition). p. 247

References

Silver coins Coins of Russia Early Modern currencies