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Dicken - Adrian I
| Issuer | Sion, Bishopric of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1529-1548 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | HMZ 2#1032a, Pal Sion#118 |
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|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | ADRIANVS ⸰ EPVS ⸰ SEDVNEN |
| Reverse description | Saint Theodore, patron of Sion, depicted enthroned and facing front, wearing a bishop's mitre and nimbus, holding an upright sword in his right hand and an episcopal crozier in his left. A small bell is placed at his feet to the right. The figure is rendered in the late medieval ecclesiastical style typical of Swiss episcopal coinage, enclosed within a circular Latin legend in the field. |
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| Additional information |
The Bishopric of Sion — the ecclesiastical authority governing the Valais — minted its own coinage with unusual autonomy for a Swiss episcopal see, a privilege jealously defended against both Savoyard encroachment and, later, the encroaching influence of the Reformed cantons. The dicken was the workhorse denomination of early sixteenth-century Swiss monetary life, roughly equivalent in purchasing power to the German Groschen tradition from which it descends.
Adrian I von Riedmatten, who held the see from 1529 to 1548, navigated the diocese through the turbulence of the Reformation without abandoning Catholicism — the Valais remaining firmly Roman while Bern and Zurich broke away.