Bern 1774 4 kreuzer
This specimen was lot 5115 in Sincona Auction 102 (Zürich, October 2025), where it sold for 900 CHF (about US$1,357 including buyers' fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"SCHWEIZ Bern, Stadt und Kanton, Batzen 1774, Bern. Selten in dieser Erhaltung. Gutes vorzüglich. (Switzerland, city and canton of Bern, batzen of 1774, Bern mint. Rare in this condition, About Uncirculated.)"
Bern, one of the cantons of Switzerland, struck coins fairly steadily throughout the eighteenth century altho thalers are scarce. The coinage was interrupted by Napoleonic occupation but resumed in 1817. In 1839, the coinage was decimalized to 100 centimes = one franc and one, two, four, ten and twenty-five centimes were issued, all in billon. This type was struck 1717, 1754, 1765-66, 1770-78, 1784, 1789, 1793-98 and this is a very scarce date. Four kreuzer = 1 batzen = 1/40 of a thaler.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: 2.35 g, billon, 24 mm diameter, this specimen 2.10 g.
Catalog reference: KM 87, D.T. 524g, HMZ 2-223g.
- Michael, Thomas, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1701-1800, 7th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2016.
- Richter, Jürg, and Ruedi Kunzmann, Neuer HMZ-Katalog, Band 2: Die Münzen der Schweiz und Liechtensteins 15//16. Jahrhundert bis Gegenwart, Regenstauf, Germany: H. Gietl Verlag GmbH, 2006.
- [1]Richter, Jurg, SINCONA Auction 102: The Konrad Bürki Collection - Part 4 (Swiss Cantonal Coins), Zurich: SINCONA AG, 2025.
Link to: