Fribourg occupied an awkward position within the Swiss Confederation during this period — a Catholic canton surrounded by Reformed neighbors, maintaining its own municipal coinage well into the eighteenth century partly as an assertion of civic autonomy against both Bernese economic dominance and Helvetic standardization pressures. The billon alloy here is low-grade silver, reflecting the chronic shortage of quality metal that plagued small Swiss city-states relying on trade revenues rather than mining.
The nearly three-decade span of this type without design change suggests a static die policy, likely reusing working dies until failure rather than issuing fresh coinage annually.
Fribourg occupied an awkward position within the Swiss Confederation during this period — a Catholic canton surrounded by Reformed neighbors, maintaining its own municipal coinage well into the eighteenth century partly as an assertion of civic autonomy against both Bernese economic dominance and Helvetic standardization pressures. The billon alloy here is low-grade silver, reflecting the chronic shortage of quality metal that plagued small Swiss city-states relying on trade revenues rather than mining.
The nearly three-decade span of this type without design change suggests a static die policy, likely reusing working dies until failure rather than issuing fresh coinage annually.