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1/2 Thaler
| Issuer | City of Basel |
|---|---|
| Year | 1720 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 14.1 g |
| Diameter | 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 | Detailed panoramic cityscape of Basel depicted in a bird's-eye perspective, showing the walled city straddling the Rhine River with numerous church spires, towers, and civic buildings rendered in fine engraved detail; boats are visible on the river below the city walls. A decorative ribbon banner at the top of the field carries the city name BASILEA in Latin. At the bottom of the field, a shield bearing the denomination 1/2 is placed centrally amid foliate ornaments. The entire design is enclosed within a beaded inner border, with the coin's edge exhibiting a reeded or toothed collar finish consistent with milled production. |
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| Additional information |
Basel's civic coinage of the early eighteenth century was produced under the authority of the city council, which jealously guarded its minting rights against repeated pressure from the Holy Roman imperial administration to standardize cantonal issues. The 1720 half thaler falls within a production window when the Basel mint was navigating the monetary disorder left by the Nine Years' War and the War of the Spanish Succession — both of which disrupted silver flows across the Rhine corridor for decades.
HMZ 2#100a is among the more precisely documented of Basel's civic thalers, a series known for inconsistent die alignment across the run.