4 Heller / Vierer

Schaffhausen's billon issues of this period reflect the chronic small-change shortage that plagued the Swiss cantons throughout the Thirty Years' War. With trade routes disrupted and bullion supplies uncertain, municipal authorities across the Confederation resorted to low-denomination emergency coinage well below the quality standards of earlier issues. The city's mint rights, confirmed by imperial privilege, allowed it to strike independently — a prerogative Schaffhausen guarded jealously against encroachment from larger neighbors.

HMZ cataloguing places this among several closely related Vierer types that are difficult to attribute without die study.