1814 4 Franken (XIX Cantons)

In 1814, with Napoleon defeated and the Act of Mediation dissolved, the Swiss Confederation reconstituted itself as a federation of XIX cantons under the Federal Treaty of 1815. Each canton again struck its own coinage, and the Canton of Luzern issued this large 4 Franken piece - one of the great early-Restoration Swiss cantonal silver coins.

The obverse depicts a Swiss warrior in 16th-century costume - feathered cap, halberd in his right hand, his left hand resting on a shield inscribed XIX CANT. for the nineteen cantons - standing on a plinth. The encircling legend SCHWEIZER EIDSGENOSSEN ("Swiss Confederates") and the denomination 4 FRANKEN below proclaim the federal context: even though the coin was struck by a single canton, it was meant to circulate throughout the renewed Confederation.

The reverse carries the crowned arms of the Canton of Luzern - the vertically divided shield in an oval frame surrounded by palm and laurel branches - with the legend CANTON LUZERN and the date 1814 below. It is the classic visual vocabulary of Swiss cantonal silver: civic heraldry framed in foliage, federal identity on the obverse and cantonal sovereignty on the reverse.

This piece is graded PCGS MS 62, a strong Mint State grade with the bonus of dramatic blue-and-rose rainbow cabinet toning - the kind of original surface that develops over generations of careful storage in a coin cabinet and that collectors of Swiss material prize above almost everything else.