3 Batzen

Basel's 3 Batzen denomination occupies an awkward corner of Swiss monetary history — the Batzen itself was a unit constantly under pressure from debasement by smaller cantons, and by the early eighteenth century the metal content of billon issues varied enough between issuers that merchants routinely discounted coins from unfamiliar cities. HMZ distinguishes two die variants within this short run, catalogued as 104a and 104b, suggesting the city cycled through at least two working die pairs across the three-year production window.