Zug Schilling

The Zug schilling often featured a fish on its obverse, directly lifted from the Canton of Zug's coat of arms. This wasn't some symbolic flourish; it was a blunt assertion of local identity on a small silver disk. Minters in Zug struck these coins from recycled silver, including melted-down pieces of Spanish reales that flooded Europe at the time. Weights varied wildly between strikes, depending on the available metal and the mintmaster's mood. No two were exactly alike. We don't know precise mintage figures; most records vanished in various fires and wars. As for designs, they evolved over the centuries, from simple to more ornate, but always retained that fish. Some say it warded off counterfeiters. Perhaps it did.