Zürich struck ducats on the Venetian ducat standard, a deliberate alignment with the dominant trade gold of the period rather than any Imperial prescription. The city's authority to strike gold coinage derived from privileges accumulated over centuries, and by the 1670s these emissions served the commercial networks connecting the Swiss Confederation to Italian and German markets far more than they served local daily exchange.
The HMZ 2#1137c designation places this within a closely documented sequence — Zürich double ducats of this period are distinguished by die marriages that collectors have mapped with unusual precision, making attribution to specific emission years more reliable than for many contemporaneous Swiss cantonal issues.
Zürich struck ducats on the Venetian ducat standard, a deliberate alignment with the dominant trade gold of the period rather than any Imperial prescription. The city's authority to strike gold coinage derived from privileges accumulated over centuries, and by the 1670s these emissions served the commercial networks connecting the Swiss Confederation to Italian and German markets far more than they served local daily exchange.
The HMZ 2#1137c designation places this within a closely documented sequence — Zürich double ducats of this period are distinguished by die marriages that collectors have mapped with unusual precision, making attribution to specific emission years more reliable than for many contemporaneous Swiss cantonal issues.