The Rössler — named for the small horse (Rössl) that gave the type its common identity — circulated as a fractional silver piece within the Three Forest Cantons' monetary union at a moment when Swiss confederate coinage was deeply fragmented. Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden maintained this joint monetary arrangement partly to resist the commercial dominance of larger cantons like Bern and Zurich, whose heavier issues threatened to crowd out local small change entirely.
The HMZ reference covers a range spanning nearly five decades, during which die workmanship varied considerably between issuing locations.
The Rössler — named for the small horse (Rössl) that gave the type its common identity — circulated as a fractional silver piece within the Three Forest Cantons' monetary union at a moment when Swiss confederate coinage was deeply fragmented. Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden maintained this joint monetary arrangement partly to resist the commercial dominance of larger cantons like Bern and Zurich, whose heavier issues threatened to crowd out local small change entirely.
The HMZ reference covers a range spanning nearly five decades, during which die workmanship varied considerably between issuing locations.