Fribourg 1 Sol

The Fribourg 1 Sol's minting halted abruptly in 1798 due to the French invasion of Switzerland, which swept away the canton's autonomy and its coinage traditions in one fell swoop.

Weighing about 2 to 3 grams and measuring around 20 millimeters across, these bronze coins were designed for everyday use in the Fribourg canton. They typically bore the city's coat of arms—a red shield with a silver lion—on the obverse, while the reverse showed the denomination in Latin script. Struck on hand-prepared planchets, often from recycled copper alloys, they reflected the era's resourcefulness amid economic constraints.

Mintage records for specific years are spotty; many documents were likely destroyed in later conflicts or simply never kept. That said, variations in die wear suggest production varied widely over the nearly century-long run.

It's a coin that, like Swiss neutrality, held steady through turbulent times—until it didn't.