1/2 Dicken

Bern's independent coinage authority during this period operated under a patchwork of cantonal monetary agreements that were routinely ignored in practice — the city struck to its own weight standards with little deference to the nominal Swiss confederate accords of the era. The half Dicken filled a specific transactional gap in local commerce, particularly in the cloth and grain markets that dominated Bernese economic life through the mid-sixteenth century.

The HMZ 2#173b designation covers a span of over six decades, meaning dies, weight tolerances, and silver fineness shifted across issues catalogued under the same reference number.