The batzen was a coin produced by Bern, Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, from the 15th century until the mid-19th century. The batzen is named for the bear (Batz, Bätz or Petz meaning bear) depicted on the batzen of Bern.

Other Swiss cantons and southern German states soon followed Bern's example, producing their own batzen. The batzen was originally a silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

 coin, but by the 17th century it was struck in billon

Billon (alloy)

Billon is an alloy of a precious metal with a majority base metal content . It is used chiefly for making coins, medals, and token coins.The word comes from the French bille....

. In Bern's monetary system, the batzen was worth four kreuzer

Kreuzer

The Kreuzer, in English usually kreutzer, was a silver coin and unit of currency existing in the southern German states prior to the unification of Germany, and in Austria.-Early history:...

.

With decimalization reform in the 19th century, the batzen was divided into 10 rappen

Rappen

A Rappen originally was a variant of the medieval Pfennig common to the Alemannic German regions Alsace, Sundgau and Northern Switzerland. As with other German pennies, its half-piece was a Haller, the smallest piece which was struck.Today, one-hundredth of a Swiss franc is still officially...

, with 10 batzen worth 1 franc

Franc

The franc is the name of several currency units, most notably the Swiss franc, still a major world currency today due to the prominence of Swiss financial institutions and the former currency of France, the French franc until the Euro was adopted in 1999...

. When the Swiss franc

Swiss franc

The franc is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein; it is also legal tender in the Italian exclave Campione d'Italia. Although not formally legal tender in the German exclave Büsingen , it is in wide daily use there...

was introduced in 1850 as a common currency for all Swiss cantons, the batzen denomination was no longer officially used, but remained a colloquial term for the 10 rappen coin.