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Ducat
| Issuer | City of Bern |
|---|---|
| Year | 1697 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Ducat |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | The arms of the City of Bern — a diagonally striped shield charged with a walking bear — displayed prominently in the centre, surmounted by an ornate crown. The shield is supported on either side by a partially draped allegorical figure, a female supporter to the left and a male supporter to the right, both rendered in high relief in the Baroque manner. Elaborate foliate cartouche work frames the base of the composition. The circular legend reads BENEDICTUS · SIT · IEHOVA · DEUS around the upper periphery, with the word SIT appearing inverted at the base in the die orientation. The coin exhibits a finely milled border of edge denticles. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
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| Reverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Bern's late seventeenth-century ducats were issued under the authority of the city's ruling patriciate — a closed oligarchy that had consolidated power so completely by 1697 that fewer than a hundred families controlled both the civic government and its coinage. The ducat served Bern's substantial mercenary trade, as the city-state derived enormous income from renting soldiers to foreign powers, particularly France, and hard gold coin was the preferred medium for those contracts.
HMZ 1#2-188h places this among a tightly sequenced die study; the 188 series spans several years with subtle shield and legend variations that require direct comparison to distinguish reliably.