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1/2 Ducat
| Issuer | City of Bern |
|---|---|
| Year | 1714 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | KM#82, HMZ 1#2-217a, Fr#173, Divo/Tob17#492 |
| Obverse description | Central shield bearing the arms of Bern — a diagonal stripe with a walking bear — set within an elaborate baroque cartouche flanked by foliate ornaments. The shield is surmounted by a royal crown. The circular Latin legend reads BENEDICTUS · SIT · IEHOVA · DEUS, distributed around the periphery of the coin. The milled edge is clearly visible framing the design. |
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| Mintage | 1714 |
| Additional information |
Bern's half ducat coinage of the early eighteenth century was produced under the authority of the city's mint, which operated with a degree of independence unusual even among Swiss cantonal mints of the period. The ducat standard itself was an import — adopted from Venetian and later Habsburg commercial practice to facilitate trade at a time when Bern's merchant class was expanding aggressively into Italian and Burgundian markets.
The 1714 date places this piece in the year of the Peace of Baden, which concluded the War of the Spanish Succession on Swiss soil and restored a measure of economic stability to the Confederation after years of disrupted trade routes.