1 Rappen

Before Swiss federal unification in 1848, each canton operated its own monetary system — Bern among the most prolific issuers. The canton's billon rappen of this period circulated alongside a chaotic mixture of cantonal, foreign, and ecclesiastical coins, a patchwork that the new Confederation would spend years untangling. Billon itself — a low-grade silver-copper alloy — was the practical choice for fractional coinage when silver was too valuable to waste on denominations this small.

The HMZ reference places this squarely within the Helvetic numismatic framework compiled by Divo and Tobler, the standard authority for pre-federal Swiss issues.