1/2 Thaler

Zürich maintained its own coinage well into the eighteenth century despite persistent pressure from the Helvetic confederation toward monetary standardization. The city's half thaler series of this period was struck under the authority of the municipal mint, which jealously guarded its franchising rights against encroachment from both cantonal neighbors and imperial pretensions. Production spanned four and a half decades across multiple die pairs, and Wunderly's documentation identifies enough variation within the type to reward careful die study.