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Dicken
| Issuer | City of Zürich |
|---|---|
| Year | 1629 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Thaler (1621-1651) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Within a beaded inner circle, the rampant lion of Zürich faces right, holding a diagonally placed shield bearing the city's arms (divided per pale with diagonal stripe). The lion is rendered in bold relief with a crowned head and detailed mane. The circular Latin legend * MONETA * NOVA * THVRICENSIS runs along the periphery between the beaded border and the coin's rim, reading clockwise. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
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| Reverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
The 1629 Dicken was struck when Zürich was navigating the early decades of its post-Reformation municipal coinage program with considerable ambition, issuing denominations that deliberately positioned the city as a sovereign monetary power in the fragmented Swiss confederation. By 1629, the Thirty Years' War had destabilized trade routes and currency across the German-speaking lands, driving demand for reliable city-issued silver. The Zürich Dicken, rooted in a denomination type dating to the late fifteenth century, filled that role for regional commerce.
The Wunderly collection reference — one of the foundational catalogues for Swiss cantonal coinage — indicates this type was carefully documented in the early twentieth century, when Swiss numismatic scholarship began systematically distinguishing the closely related municipal Dicken varieties by die.