Basel struck this double goldgulden in 1790 as the city-republic's political independence was quietly eroding — within eight years, French Revolutionary forces would dissolve the canton's civic autonomy entirely and fold it into the Helvetic Republic. Issues from this final decade of Basel's existence as a sovereign minting authority are scarce precisely because the city had little economic incentive to produce large gold coinages; most gold circulating locally was foreign.
HMZ 2#93b distinguishes this as a specific die variant within the type. The 1790 date places it among the last gold emissions before the mint fell silent under French reorganization in 1798.
Basel struck this double goldgulden in 1790 as the city-republic's political independence was quietly eroding — within eight years, French Revolutionary forces would dissolve the canton's civic autonomy entirely and fold it into the Helvetic Republic. Issues from this final decade of Basel's existence as a sovereign minting authority are scarce precisely because the city had little economic incentive to produce large gold coinages; most gold circulating locally was foreign.
HMZ 2#93b distinguishes this as a specific die variant within the type. The 1790 date places it among the last gold emissions before the mint fell silent under French reorganization in 1798.