Coinage of Switzerland

[chrisild]

One general comment about Swiss coins: Due to the four official languages, the coins from that country are usually not verbose.   The country name is always in Latin (Helvetia or Confœderatio Helvetica), the value is usually indicated by a mere "Fr." or "FR", with no unit name for the rapper/centime/etc. coins. Only when it comes to regional customs, or a sight in a specific place, you will see words in the appropriate local language on Swiss collector coins.

And now, those stars. Note that on the half franc, 1 FR and 2 Fr Swiss coins, Helvetia is surrounded by stars, arranged in two half circles. Unlike the 13 stars mentioned before, these 22 (until 1982) or 23 stars (as from 1983) represent the cantons. Depending on how you count the so-called half-cantons, the coins could have 26 these days, but they don't.

Also, the stars are arranged in a radial way. Not sure whether that is the correct term - both the Stars of Europe (on the EU flag) and the Swiss stars are five-pointed, but on coins from Switzerland one point of each star points at the edge.

Christian

[<k>]

Excellent info, chrisild. 

Let's hurtle back to the 1980s now. Here is a nice photo to set the scene. By now Switzerland was a very rich country, partly thanks to the "Gnomes of Zürich": the bankers and finance capitalists. (The Swiss franc is THE hard currency par excellence). It was also still a sparsely populated and very beautiful country. Chocolate box scenery abounds, and it is utterly clean. I just never saw dirt or litter or architectural ugliness when I visited Switzerland.

The country has a mainly ethnically German population that is very peaceful and lives in harmony with its Francophone and Italian-speaking compatriots. It operates direct democracy, in which the populace requests frequent referenda, yet without the problems that the UK has struggled with. Switzerland is not a member of the EU and remains a neutral country. It enjoys exactly the sort of splendid isolation, despite being at the heart of Europe, that many a current Brexiter would envy. Instead, of course, the Brexiters tend to envy Norway, perhaps because it has a large coastline and is, like Britain, a long and thin country. 

I can name no Swiss politician, yet one or two names from the cultural sphere stand out. One is Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology.  Another is Albert Hofmann, who first synthesised LSD. He later had rather a strange time of it after absorbing some through his fingertips. 

All in all, Switzerland is something of a fairy tale country, almost too good to be true.

[<k>]

Swiss coin set, 1983.

Until 1982, some of the Swiss coins were aligned thus: ↑↓

- that is, like the US coins.


Then, in 1982, they were all aligned thus: ↑↑  .

This improved their presentation when seen in an album or proof set.

[<k>]

From the web site of the Swiss National Bank:

From 1985 to 1993, 5-franc coins were minted with sunk relief type around the edges. As an increasing number of counterfeits with sunk relief type around the edges began to appear, a decision was made in 1994 to mint 5-franc pieces with a raised (slightly embossed) relief type around the edges. The 5-franc pieces with sunk relief type around the edges were withdrawn from circulation on 1 January 2004. The SNB continues to exchange them at full nominal value.

Does anybody have instructive images of these coins?

[<k>]

From Wikipedia:

The 1-centime coin was still produced until 2006, albeit in ever decreasing quantities, but its importance declined. Those who could justify the use of 1-centime coins for monetary purposes could obtain them at face value; any other user (such as collectors) had to pay an additional four centimes per coin to cover the production costs, which had exceeded the actual face value of the coin for many years. The coin fell into disuse in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but was only officially fully withdrawn from circulation and declared to be no longer legal tender on 1 January 2007. The long-forgotten 2-centime coin, not minted since 1974, was demonetized on 1 January 1978.

So much for the recently demonetised coins.

As for the oldest coins still in use, the Swiss National Bank tells us:

There are 10-centime coins minted in 1879 still in circulation and which are still legal tender.

[<k>]

This, then, ends my survey and brings us up to date.

I am particularly glad that our admin Figleaf enjoyed the topic. I feared that he would contemptuously declare the country a 'flyspeck', because it has a population of only 8 million and is physically smaller than little Bosnia-Herzegovina. What's more, it has steadfastly refused to join the EU. 

[Figleaf]

No need. Consider Orson Welles' take in "The third man", carefully presenting it as quoting someone else:

You know what the fellow said – in Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.

[chrisild]

The cuckoo clock.

Cute bonmot of course but wrong. Then again, why would an American know the difference between Germany, Austria and Switzerland.   What about the Swiss army knife or velcro instead? And instant coffee and zippers were largely influenced or first (mass) produced by Swiss. And, while Harry Lime would not have wasted any thoughts on humanitarian issues ... the Red Cross. Also, when you want to annoy a Swiss, talk about Heiiidiii instead of chemical industry, Jean Tinguely and Paul Klee, or engineering.

As for famous politicians, well, quite a few may still know the controversial Christoph Blocher (SVP). He stood out partly because of his fight against any attempt at a closer CH-EU cooperation but also because he opposed the "consensual policy" principle. Switzerland does not have a head of state or head of government; these are functions of the Bundesrat (Federal Council). More about the background is here for example.

Christian

[chrisild]

As for images of the Swiss 5 Fr coins, here is a Swissmint document (PDF, German) about that denomination. Now the edge types ... well, I do not have any pictures myself, but have a look here. Close to the bottom of that page, the "1985" and "1986 bis 1993" types have a link called "vertiefte Randschrift" (pop-up window) with some photos.

Christian

[<k>]

See also: Patterns from Switzerland.

[chrisild]

Side note, sort of: I just read that Swissmint will get its new blanks from Poongsan. They had split the order up; seven tenders, one for each denomination. Each time Poongsan won; previously blanks for Switzerland had also been made by the Mint of Finland group.

Christian

[<k>]

Western Europe: Some pre-euro coinages issued after 1945.

01] Austria: pre-euro coinage from 1946 to 2001.

02] Belgian franc: from 1948 until the euro.

03] Coinage of Switzerland.

04] Cyprus: final coinage under British rule.

05] Finland: Wildlife series of the 1990s.

06] French coins from the 1950s until the introduction of the euro.

07] German coinage of the Allied occupation, 1945 to 1948.

08] Greece 1973: the fascinating story behind Series A and B.

09] Icelandic marine series, 1981 to date.

10] Italy's final pre-euro coinage.

11] Luxembourg's coinage after World War 2 but before the euro.

12] Malta's pre-euro coinage, 1972-2007.

13] Milestones in the coinage of the Netherlands.

14] Milestones in the decimal coinage of Gibraltar.

15] Milestones in the decimal coinage of Guernsey.

16] Milestones in the decimal coinage of Ireland.

17] Milestones in the decimal coinage of Jersey.

18] Milestones in the decimal coinage of the Isle of Man.

19] Milestones in the decimal coinage of the UK.

20] Norwegian wildlife series, 1958 to 1973.

21] Portugal's final pre-euro coin series.

22] Pre-euro Coinage of the Federal Republic of Germany.

23] Pre-euro coinage of the Republic of Greece, 1976 to 2001.

24] Republic of Cyprus: pre-euro coinage.

25] Spain: pre-euro coinage of King Juan Carlos I.

[chrisild]

The finance blog "Inside Paradeplatz" (IP) just published an article about Swissmint's difficult situation. Not only is cash less popular than it used to be – pretty much everything about the production of coins has become more expensive recently. Prices of the two main metals they need, copper and nickel, have gone up. 1 kg nickel for example was about 10 CHF five years ago. This year the price went up significantly and was at a record high in the first half of March; currently it is at 26 CHF. The price hike also applies to energy expenses for the production.

Now IP has a somewhat ambiguous reputation; they can be quite investigative when it comes to unveiling scandals in the finance world. But the site has also published sexist comments, and racist articles involving incorrect figures about migrants. Assuming that the figures in this particular story are accurate, coin production in this year was/will be 21 million circulation pieces, down from 50 million the year before. Apparently the Swiss central bank still has plenty of "unused" coins.

Making and selling collector coins could be a way out. The Sechseläuten piece from 2001, for example, had a record mintage of 190,000. This year Swissmint has sold 32,000 collector coins so far. According to the article, the mint does try and develop interesting products, such as the smallest gold coin (see here), only 0.063 g and featuring Albert Einstein, or this year's platinum piece with a mintage of only 999.

Except that the platinum "coins" were sold out within hours. A little later they cost roughly five times the original price at online auction sites. The IP article suggests that Swissmint's offer once again did not meet the demand. Also, the mint stopped publishing the customer magazine "Kopf oder Zahl" (i.e. Heads or Tails; last issue in September '21), and had to reduce its staff from 21 to 16 ...

[<k>]

Swiss circulation coinage.

Here you see the Swiss circulation coins alongside one another.


Notice the half franc coin.

It is smaller than the 20 rappen coin.


Originally the half franc coin was 90% silver.

The 5, 10 and 20 rappen coins were made of billon.

Those coins were only 50% silver.


The silver and billon coins were placed in different tiers.

Their metal content was considered fundamentally different.

Hence the half franc was the smallest coin of the silver tier.


We find a similar situation in the USA.

The 5 cents coin was originally made of nickel.

The 10 cents coin was originally made of silver.


The 10 cents coin was therefore made smaller than the 5 cents coin.

Those coins are traditionally known as the nickel and dime, of course.

[chrisild]

Right, today all Swiss circulation coins have the same composition or alloy (Cu75 Ni25), with the exception of the "yellowish" 5 rp/ct piece (Cu92 Al6 Ni2). That and the following may have been mentioned before, but I am too lazy to look it up.   As for the half franc, that is indeed smaller, lighter and less "high" than the 0.20 coin:

20 rp/ct:    21.05 mm / 4.0 g / 1.65 mm

1/2 franc:  18.2 mm / 2.2 g / 1.25 mm

That helps distinguishing them. Also, the three lower denominations have a smooth edge while that of the ½ fr, 1 fr and 2 fr is milled. (The 5 fr coins have a raised edge inscription.)

Side note: Until 1981 the lower denominations (up to 20 rp/ct) were minted with a parallel ↑↑ orientation while the higher ones (½ fr to 5 fr) had an inverted ↑↓ orientation. That looked odd in the annual mint sets for example. So since 1982 all coins have been "parallel".