Fünfer

Fribourg's late-medieval small silver coinage occupied an awkward political space — the city had only formally joined the Swiss Confederation in 1481, and its right to strike independent coinage was a point of civic pride carefully maintained against both Savoyard pressure and Bernese influence throughout this period. The Fünfer, worth five Pfennig, filled the gap left by the chronic shortage of petty silver across the Burgundian borderlands following the disruption of Valois mint output after Charles the Bold's death at Nancy in 1477.