2 Batzen - Wilhelm Rink von Baldenstein

The Bishopric of Basel occupied an awkward political position during the early 1620s — nominally a Prince-Bishopric of the Holy Roman Empire, its temporal authority was already being squeezed by the expanding Swiss Confederacy. Wilhelm Rink von Baldenstein, who held the see from 1608 to 1628, issued coinage from Porrentruy rather than Basel itself, the city having effectively expelled episcopal control decades earlier.

The Thirty Years' War, erupting in 1618, disrupted regional silver supplies and monetary networks across the Empire. Small billon and silver issues like this 2 Batzen were common stopgaps for local commerce during that instability.