Thaler

Basel's civic thalers of the seventeenth century were minted under the authority of the city council, which jealously guarded its minting rights as one of the few remaining Free Imperial Cities on the upper Rhine still operating its own die-cutting workshop. The 1669 issue falls within a period of relative monetary stability for Basel, which had navigated the disruptions of the Thirty Years' War more successfully than most Swiss neighbors by virtue of its position as a banking and trade hub between the German lands and the Swiss Confederation.

The Dav. 4613 designation places this squarely within the well-documented EC II series, and HMZ 78t distinguishes it within the fine typological subdivisions Swiss numismatists apply to Basel civic issues of this decade.