Kreuzer

The Canton of Valais operated with considerable monetary independence in the early seventeenth century, issuing its own small billon coinage well before the consolidation pressures that would later squeeze cantonal minting rights. The 1628 date places this piece squarely in the Thirty Years' War period, when trade disruption across the Holy Roman Empire created chronic shortages of reliable small change throughout the Swiss cantons — a vacuum that local issuers like Valais readily filled.

Billon strikes from this mint are frequently found with uneven flan preparation, a characteristic of the period rather than any specific die failure.