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Batzen SANCTVS VINCENCIVS
| Issuer | City of Bern |
|---|---|
| Year | 1492-1528 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Reverse description | Central design features a bold Greek cross with elaborate fleur-de-lis terminals in each of the four angles, all contained within a beaded inner circle. The lily-tipped cross arms divide the field into four quadrants, each adorned with a stylized Gothic floral or lily motif, lending the composition a rich decorative quality consistent with late medieval Swiss die-cutting traditions. The surrounding circular legend invoking the city's patron saint, SANCTVS VINCENCIVS, is inscribed in late Gothic uncial script between the beaded inner circle and the coin's outer edge, introduced by a cross pattée. The overall execution is characteristic of the early Bernese Batzen series struck by hammering. |
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| Reverse lettering | ✠ SANCTVS ⵓ VINCENCIVS |
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| Additional information |
Bern's right to strike silver coinage derived from an imperial grant, but the city exercised that right with considerable independence throughout the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The Batzen denomination itself was a Bernese innovation — the name almost certainly derives from the bear (Bär) on the civic arms, and by the 1490s the type had spread across the Swiss Confederacy and into southern Germany as a de facto regional trade coin.
The span covered by this type crosses the Reformation's arrival in Bern in 1528, after which civic iconography and religious dedications on coinage changed substantially. Any example from the later end of the issue range was struck within years of that rupture.