Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Guldiner Double-headed eagle
| Issuer | City of Bern |
|---|---|
| Year | 1540 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Central crowned imperial escutcheon bearing the double-headed eagle, flanked below by two smaller escutcheons displaying the mirrored coat of arms of Bern. The composition is enclosed within a trilobe (trefoil) border. The peripheral legend is separated by lozenge-shaped stops and reads + NVM ⁑ BERNAE HELVET ⁑ CVSVS ⁑ 1540, indicating this coin was struck in the name of Bern of the Helvetians in 1540. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | + NVM ⁑ BERNAE HELVET ⁑ CVSVS ⁑ 1540 |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Bern's civic coinage in the sixteenth century operated under a degree of monetary independence that most Swiss cantons envied. The guldiner denomination itself was a response to the Venetian trade ducat's dominance in Alpine commerce — southern German and Swiss mints began producing large silver pieces in the late fifteenth century specifically to compete on equal weight terms with gold in long-distance merchant transactions.
HMZ 2-171c is one of the scarcer documented die marriages in the Bern guldiner sequence, distinguished within a series where variant attribution often hinges on minor differences in the shield arrangement or eagle rendering.