Batzen

The Fribourg Batzen belongs to a period when the city's loyalty to Catholicism — rare among Swiss cantons following the Reformation — shaped its political alliances more than its coinage. Fribourg and Solothurn stood together as the two cantons that refused the Reformed faith, a stance that drew them into the orbit of Savoyard and French influence throughout the sixteenth century.

The billon composition reflects the chronic silver shortage that plagued Swiss municipal mints across this period, with copper content creeping upward as bullion supplies tightened after mid-century.