Thaler

The monetary union of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden — the three original Forest Cantons whose 1291 oath underpins the Swiss federal myth — struck these thalers jointly as a deliberate assertion of collective economic authority at a moment when the larger cantons dominated Swiss monetary policy. Producing a shared thaler was logistically awkward; the three cantons had no single mint city and negotiating die production required formal inter-cantonal agreements that left documentary traces still studied by Swiss monetary historians.

The emission window of roughly fourteen years produced relatively few survivors in problem-free condition, as these coins saw genuine mercenary-trade circulation across the Alpine passes.