Vierer

Basel's Vierer occupied the lowest tier of the city's silver coinage during the fifteenth century, when the city was consolidating its position as a major Rhine trading hub. The denomination was struck to facilitate small commercial transactions at a moment when Basel's merchant class was growing rapidly — the city formally joined the Swiss Confederation only in 1501, and throughout the 1400s it operated as a largely autonomous imperial free city managing its own monetary affairs. Thin flans of this diameter were notoriously prone to cracking during striking, and survivors without flan flaws are the exception.