Veitel Heine Ephraim, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetVeitel Heine Ephraim
German forger
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Berlin
About Veitel Heine Ephraim
- Veitel Heine Ephraim, 1703 – 16 May 1775 in Berlin) was jeweller to the Prussian Court, an silk entrepreneur in Potsdam, the chairman of the Jewish congregation in Berlin/Prussia, and since 1756 Mintmaster in Saxony and from 1758 also in Prussia.
- During the Seven Years' War Frederick the Great devalued the Prussian coin five times in order to finance the war; debased coins were produced with the help from Ephraim and Daniel Itzig, and spread outside Prussia: in Saxony, Poland, and Kurland.
- Ephraim and his companion Itzig became infamous for adding copper, up to 70%, into the fake coins, known as Ephraimiten.
- The coin fraud of the entrepreneurs became an existential element of war financing.
- Heinrich Carl von Schimmelmann, Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky and Leendert Pieter de Neufville rivalled Ephraim's exchange business.
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