1/2 Batzen

Zofingen was a small but administratively independent city in the Aargau, then under Bernese overlordship, and its right to strike its own coinage was a jealously guarded privilege that Bern periodically contested throughout the eighteenth century. This 1721 issue likely reflects a deliberate assertion of that minting authority during a period of renewed tension over cantonal monetary rights. The Batzen denominations were the workhorse coinage of Swiss daily commerce, and billon — that characteristically Swiss compromise between silver and copper — was the practical material for anything meant to actually circulate.