40 Batzen

Lucerne struck this large silver piece during the immediate aftermath of the "Year Without a Summer" — the 1816 climate catastrophe triggered by the eruption of Mount Tambora that devastated harvests across Switzerland and much of Europe. The Canton faced acute fiscal stress, and the 40 Batzen issue was part of a broader effort by Swiss cantons to assert monetary independence before the Helvetic monetary reforms consolidated coinage standards later in the century.

The HMZ reference places this among a tightly documented series of cantonal issues that effectively ended with Swiss federal unification in 1848.