In the year of 1280 or of 1286, the baker Wackerbold started a fire in the old town of Zurich. Wackerbold had been caught at baking bread that was too light. As punishment he had been exposed to the public in the pillory. For this the baker took horrible revenge: one stormy night he set his house on fire, and disappeared. The fire spread and finally burned large parts of the old town to the ground. As a consequence the city decreed fire and catastrophe regulations for the first time.
The city's sovereign was at that time the abbess of the Fraumünster, in those years Elizabeth of Wetzikon (1270-1298). She participated decisively in the city's rebuilding, and took over much of the construction costs. This strained the abbey's budget, so that many new coins had to be struck. This bracteate is one of them. It depicts the city's patrons Felix and Regula who were revered in Zurich since the 8th century.