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1/2 Ducat
| Issuer | City of Zürich |
|---|---|
| Year | 1641-1671 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | Five lines of Latin inscription reading MONETA NOVA THURICENSIS with the date below, all contained within a laurel wreath tied at the base. The wreath is finely rendered with individual leaves and berries, characteristic of the hammered gold coinage of the Zürich mint. The field is plain and the lettering is set in a clear, slightly archaic gothic-influenced hand consistent with mid-seventeenth-century Swiss municipal coinage practice. |
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| Additional information |
Zürich's half ducat issues of this period were struck on the ducat standard the city had maintained since the sixteenth century, a deliberate alignment with the dominant trade coinage of the Holy Roman Empire that kept Zürich's gold acceptable across markets from Frankfurt to Venice. The city's mint authority was jealously guarded — Zürich resisted imperial mint reform pressures repeatedly, and these issues reflect that independence in their consistently high fineness.
The thirty-year span of this type coincided almost exactly with the aftermath of the Thirty Years' War, a period when gold hoarding and cross-border flight capital kept small-denomination gold in active circulation far longer than peacetime conditions would suggest.