Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Juan Blanco, post: 1576032, member: 41665&quot;]<span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana">The only sources that matter here are primary sources, not uncorroborated opinion. Or pretense. </font></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana"><br /></font></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana"></font></span><span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana">See <i><font face="Verdana">An account of Russia, as it was in the Year 1710 </font></i>by Charles Whitworth (1758) for a primary description of the Russian ducat, appearing with Dutch shipbuilders for Peter&#039;s fleet:</font></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana"></font></span><span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana"></font></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana"><br /></font></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana">See a French account from the late 1700s, <i>Secret memoirs of the court of Petersburg [by C.F.P. Masson]. (1801)</i></font></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana"><i><br /></i></font></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana"><br /></font></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana">William Tooke, an English clergman long resident in St Peterburg, explained ducat values of different Tsars, and by 1802, a French-Russian grammar already indicated what the informed and well-educated merchants certainly knew: &quot;ЧервонецЪ ducat est un nom générique. <span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana"><font face="Verdana">Le ducat russe, pièce d&#039;or valant deux roubles et demi, est très-rare. </font></font></span><span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana"><font face="Verdana">Le demi-impérial l&#039;est beaucoup moins.&quot; These coins were not common in everyman&#039;s commerce - and they certainly weren&#039;t paid to common soldiers.</font></font></span></font></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana"><span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana"><font face="Verdana"><br /></font></font></span></font></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana"><span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana"><font face="Verdana">For merchants and the rich, &#039;Ducat&#039; was a term like &#039;Dollar&#039; (varying values, same concept) and as the United States Dollar was not a &#039;counterfeit&#039; to the Mexican Dollar nor any other that circulated (and there were many.) As weights &amp; fineness changed, likewise, the ducat to whatever standard was neither fraud nor counterfeit: more like &#039;same-same but different.&#039; </font></font></span></font></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana"><span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana"><br /></font></span></font></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana"><span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana">For purchasing-power, contemporaries understood a &#039;ducat&#039; between 2 Trade-Dollars and the $3. gold piece. The Director of The US Mint, Jakob Eckfeldt (1842) rated the Russian Ducat of Paul I (1798) at USD$ 2.75 in Gold. </font></span></font></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana"><span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana">[ATTACH=CONFIG]216833[/ATTACH]</font></span></font></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana"><span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana"><font face="Verdana"><br /></font></font></span></font></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana"><span style="color: #222222"><font face="Verdana"><font face="Verdana">I&#039;ll defer to a contemporary&#039;s opinon, Charles Herbert Cottrell, in 1842: the Russians had a long-standing Dutch agreement to coin full weight ducats, cheaply. But in St. Petersburg &amp; Moscow, the Rouble money-market (in Silver OR Paper) rated a Gold ducat higher or lower, on course. NOT FIXED RATE!</font></font></span></font></span>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in