Guldiner

The Guldiner was among the earliest large-format silver coins produced in the German-speaking world, developed partly as a practical response to the inadequacy of smaller denominations for major commercial transactions. Bern's 1494 issue places it in the very first generation of this denomination, roughly contemporary with the Tirolian Guldiner of Archduke Sigismund — widely credited as the prototype — issued just over a decade earlier in 1486.

Few Swiss civic authorities struck Guldiners this early. Bern's political and mercantile weight within the Confederation made it one of the few cities with both the silver supply and the commercial need to justify the issue.