Frankfurt's Jewish community was subject to a discriminatory capitation tax well into the nineteenth century, and these copper pfennigs were issued specifically as receipts or tokens tied to that fiscal burden — the derogatory name "Judenpfennig" reflecting the explicit administrative segregation that governed Jewish life in the city until emancipation arrived in 1811, and was then partially rolled back under the 1816 restoration of the old senate. The 1819 date places this piece in that reactionary period, when Frankfurt reasserted patrician control and reimposed restrictions on the Jewish population.
The "var" designation against JuF#2531 suggests die differences that remain incompletely catalogued.
Frankfurt's Jewish community was subject to a discriminatory capitation tax well into the nineteenth century, and these copper pfennigs were issued specifically as receipts or tokens tied to that fiscal burden — the derogatory name "Judenpfennig" reflecting the explicit administrative segregation that governed Jewish life in the city until emancipation arrived in 1811, and was then partially rolled back under the 1816 restoration of the old senate. The 1819 date places this piece in that reactionary period, when Frankfurt reasserted patrician control and reimposed restrictions on the Jewish population.
The "var" designation against JuF#2531 suggests die differences that remain incompletely catalogued.