2 Thalers

Basel's civic thaler series of the early eighteenth century was issued under the authority of the city council, which jealously guarded its minting rights long after most Swiss cantons had ceded monetary control to territorial princes. The 1720 date falls squarely within a period of Swiss monetary fragmentation — dozens of issuing authorities produced incompatible coinage, complicating trade across cantonal borders in ways that wouldn't begin to be resolved until the Helvetic Republic's short-lived standardization attempts at century's end.

The HMZ 2#98b attribution distinguishes this from the closely related 98a variety; collectors should examine the reverse die carefully, as the two are frequently conflated in older auction records.