Swiss circulating coinage?

Hi all,

It looks like I am going to be in Switzerland in late March for a
scienctific conference. (Being a grad student isn't all sacrifice...)
I have a bunch of higher-denomination Swiss coins that I am
considering using as pocket money, but I wanted to check that they are
still legal tender and would be accepted in daily commerce. I have
several cupro-nickel 5 Franc coins dated 1968 (B mintmark) and 1 Franc
coins with various dates in the 1980s. Also, are there any dates in
the 1 Franc coins that have numismatic value above face (for ordinary
circulated coins- not likely, but just in case...)

Also, does anyone know of coin shops in Ascona (the town where the
conference is held) or Locarno (closest large city)? It looks like I
will be kept pretty busy during the conference, but there is some free
time. Anyway, I am looking forward to this trip- it is only my second
time to Switzerland, and in the previous trip (over a decade ago) I
only saw Zurich and Luzern for a couple of days. Thanks,

Robert A. DeRose, Jr.

On 5 Feb 2005 10:55:37 -0800, wrote:

Hi all,

It looks like I am going to be in Switzerland in late March for a
scienctific conference. (Being a grad student isn't all sacrifice...)
I have a bunch of higher-denomination Swiss coins that I am
considering using as pocket money, but I wanted to check that they are
still legal tender and would be accepted in daily commerce. I have
several cupro-nickel 5 Franc coins dated 1968 (B mintmark) and 1 Franc
coins with various dates in the 1980s. Also, are there any dates in
the 1 Franc coins that have numismatic value above face (for ordinary
circulated coins- not likely, but just in case...)

Also, does anyone know of coin shops in Ascona (the town where the
conference is held) or Locarno (closest large city)? It looks like I
will be kept pretty busy during the conference, but there is some free
time. Anyway, I am looking forward to this trip- it is only my second
time to Switzerland, and in the previous trip (over a decade ago) I
only saw Zurich and Luzern for a couple of days. Thanks,

Robert A. DeRose, Jr.

If Christian Feldhaus is reading this, he can certainly give you a
better answer than I can. But I will try anyway.

I have been living in Zuerich (or Zurich, or Zürich depending on your
preference) for about 20 years now and can say that all Swiss coins
produced after they gave up minting any silver coins in 1967 (except
for commemoratives, etc.) are still in circulation. The 1968 five
Franc coin (or "s'Foif-Liber" as the German-Swiss locals might call
it) is one of the most common dates I have seen. I believe they were
all minted in Bern, hence the "B" mint mark.

The 5 Franc coin is interesting because of the edge lettering which
was struck raised until 1984, then inwards until 1993, then raised
again afterwards. There was a counterfeit 5 Franc coin which
circulated around that time, and the spacing of the stars to the text
on the edge lettering was one way of determining whether or not it was
fake. Check out this link for details:

http://www.numismatik.ch/falscher_fuenfer_DE.html

Of course, coins of all denominations less than 1/2 Franc were always
copper/nickel for as far back as you are likely to have (the 1, 2 and
5 cent pieces are different, though -- don't know exactly what they
are made of). I recently found one 10 cent coin -- or "Rappen" in
Schwitzerdütsch g -- with date of 1908, 20 Rappen of 1912 and
several of both denomination from the 1920's, 30's and 40's in my
pocket change. But the numismatic value of such coins is quite low
compared to what one would get, for example, for a U.S. Indian cent of
1908 -- much less the likelihood of ever finding one in your change in
this day and age.

You won't be likely to have any 1 Rappen or cent pieces yourself, but
they are still struck and they do exist. Since the law requires most
everyday business transactions to round values up to the nearest 5
Rappen (please correct me if I'm mistaken; I am assuming that this is
a law because I have never seen an exception to it), the 1 Rappen
piece is never found in pocket change. However, if you exchange
foreign currency at the bank, they are required to give you exact
change in which case you are likely to receive one or two of these
otherwise "useless" coins from the bank teller. Most Swiss consider
the 1 Rappen piece to be a "good luck" coin -- probably because you
can't do much of anything else with it except to collect it!

There was also a 2 Rappen piece minted until 1974. However, I'm not
sure that it is still legal tender. I've only seen the 1 Rappen coin
myself (of values under 5 Rappen, of course). At any rate, similar to
the 1 Rappen piece, you won't find it very useful as pocket change
because none of the stores will take it -- only perhaps the bank will.

If you can read a bit of German, you might want to pick up a copy of
the little Swiss numismatic monthly called "Numispost & HMZ" which
costs CHF 4.-- (about US-$3) and is sold at almost any of the kiosks
in the larger train stations or airports. They have a complete list of
market valuations for Swiss coins of all mint dates from 1850-2003
including gold coins and some commemoratives -- each month! -- as well
as Swiss bank notes from 1907 through 2000. Also, there are articles
concerning current auctions as well as advertisements of leading coin
shops. To help translate the grading:

schön -- s -- almost anything between G and low-end VF
sehr schön -- ss -- VF to EF
vorzüglich -- vz -- EF to AU, sometimes low-end MS
unzirkuliert -- unz -- uncirculated, MS-60/65
Stempelglanz -- stgl -- BU (MS-65 and up)
polierte Platte -- pp -- proof

As you can see, there is a grey area between grades because some
dealers will use "unz" and "stgl" interchangeably, and one man's "vz"
is another's "ss" or "unz". For American coins, I believe there is
more variation than for Swiss or other European coins because a
typical dealer probably doesn't see as many U.S. large cents, for
example, as an American dealer might. This can be an advantage or a
disadvantage depending on which direction the dealer grades towards.

There is another monthly magazine called "MünzenRevue -- international
coin trend journal". Despite the English subtitle, all its articles
are always in German. It is published in Germany but caters to all the
German-speaking nations and collectors. It is also sold at the bigger
kiosks. In the back, there is a list of dealers for Germany, Austria
and Switzerland. Unfortunately, there are no listings for Ticino (or
Tessin, the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland where you will be
staying), but there may be similar Italian publications which I do not
know about which might list some dealers in Tessin.

As an American living in Europe, I think there might be bargains to be
found on raw (unslabbed) American coinage which you might find in the
typical dealer's shop because the Europeans in general tend to grade
much more rigorously than Americans in the lower grades -- towards the
nicer grades, valuation converges (IMHO). So they might value a nice
EF/AU as only "sehr schön" or something in MS-60 as "vorzüglich" and
price it accordingly, and if you know what to look for, you may find a
bargain!

Many of the Swiss banks also have their own numismatic departments,
but these cater mostly to high-end collections and auctions with a
strong emphasis on modern gold coinage as well as highly-valued
antique coins (Roman, Greek, etc.) as well as a large variety of Swiss
commemorative coinage -- usually of the different cantons -- in proof
or BU quality which, to me, has more value to local collectors than to
any American collectors. But they are beautiful coins, and you might
find some interesting and exotic things among them to add to your
collection of Swiss coins. Of course, the gold Swiss coins (called
"Vreneli" in denominations of 10, 20 and 100 Franken) are very popular
and quite attractive. But you can probably find these in the U.S. (or
on the Swiss eBay site), so no need to hang around in dank smallish
coin shops looking for those when you could be enjoying a stroll along
the banks of the Lago Maggiore in the springtime!

Good luck!

--
Bob Hairgrove

Bob Hairgrove wrote:

If Christian Feldhaus is reading this, he can certainly give you a
better answer than I can.

He is, and you are wrong ;-) Frankly, you are a much better source of
information than I could be when it comes to Swiss coinage. I'm in
Germany, and while I also collect Swiss coins, they are not quite the
focus of my collection. So let me just add some notes to your report
which I found very interesting.

I believe they were
all minted in Bern, hence the "B" mint mark.

Yes, the Swiss mint (actually called "Swissmint" g) in Bern makes all
Swiss coins. The B mark can be found on the Swiss coins except for those
made between the late 1960s and early 1980s (which have no mint mark).

As for the "small" coins, older 10 and 20 centimes/rappen coins were
made from pure nickel. Newer ones (made since the late 1930s) are CuNi
coins. Note by the way that the old pure nickel 10 and 20 ct/rp coins,
and also the 5 fr coins with incused edge lettering, are not legal
tender any mo

http://www.swissmint.ch/d/gesetz/941.103.2.de.pdf
http://www.swissmint.ch/d/presse/pdf...26_11_03_d.pdf
(in German)

The 1 ct/rp coin is still made, as you wrote, and (unlike the 2 ct/rp
coin) it is also included in the annual mint sets. As far as I know
(would have to look it up), rounding up - or down! - is the default by
law, except if the two parties agree on exact payment. However, "de
facto" all payments are rounded ;-)

There has been some discussion in CH about whether the 5 ct/rp coin
(some aluminum-nickel-bronze mix) should be eliminated too.
Theoretically it could also be replaced by a coin made from less
expensive material. We'll see.

there may be similar Italian publications which I do not
know about which might list some dealers in Tessin.

Swissmint has a list of coin dealers in Switzerland, dated October 2004,
which may be helpful. I briefly "scanned" the list, and there is a
dealer or two in Ascona:
http://www.swissmint.ch/d/numismatik...erliste304.pdf

What is also interesting to observe on Swiss coins is the number of
stars on the 1/2, 1 and 2 fr coins: When Switzerland had 22 cantons,
there were 22 stars on those coins. About 20 years ago, Jura became a
canton, so since then the number of stars has been 23.

Also, until the early 1980s the Swiss coinage had what in the US is
called "coin alignment". Since then, the Swiss coins - as most other
coins in the world - have what Americans call "medal" alignment.

Christian

On Sun, 6 Feb 2005 12:53:59 +0100, (Christian Feldhaus)
wrote:

Bob Hairgrove wrote:

If Christian Feldhaus is reading this, he can certainly give you a
better answer than I can.

He is, and you are wrong ;-) Frankly, you are a much better source of
information than I could be when it comes to Swiss coinage. I'm in
Germany, and while I also collect Swiss coins, they are not quite the
focus of my collection. So let me just add some notes to your report
which I found very interesting.

Aw, shucks blushing

[snip]

there may be similar Italian publications which I do not
know about which might list some dealers in Tessin.

In the meantime, I found a list of Tessin dealers in the latest
Numispost. The list is composed of paid ads, therefore it is not
necessarily exhaustive:

- Astarte S.A.
Via Cantonale 1/A
CH-6901 Lugano / Switzerland
Tel. (+41)-91-9233640
Fax: (+41)-91-9232718
WWW: http://www.astartesa.com
(call for an appointment - not always open)

- Centro Numismatico
via Baraggie 4
Galerie AION (the "O" is actually a Greek letter Omega)
c/o Mr. Claudio Metzger
CH-6612 Ascona / Switzerland
Tel. (+41)-91-7915548 - 7914000
Fax: (+41)-91-7915549
WWW: http://www.aion.ch

- Nova Marketing S.A.
Numismatico
Via Livio 26
CH-6830 Chiasso / Switzerland
Tel. (+41)-91-6825982
Fax: (+41)-91-6460550
closed on Mondays, otherwise open during normal business hours;
closed for lunch between 1 and 2 p.m.; open Saturdays until 5 p.m.
WWW: http://www.novamarketing.ch

Swissmint has a list of coin dealers in Switzerland, dated October 2004,
which may be helpful. I briefly "scanned" the list, and there is a
dealer or two in Ascona:
http://www.swissmint.ch/d/numismatik...erliste304.pdf

What is also interesting to observe on Swiss coins is the number of
stars on the 1/2, 1 and 2 fr coins: When Switzerland had 22 cantons,
there were 22 stars on those coins. About 20 years ago, Jura became a
canton, so since then the number of stars has been 23.

Also, until the early 1980s the Swiss coinage had what in the US is
called "coin alignment". Since then, the Swiss coins - as most other
coins in the world - have what Americans call "medal" alignment.

Thanks for pointing out these items - I never noticed that until now!

--
Bob Hairgrove

Thanks, Bob and Christian, for your informative responses! I'm
afraid I'm not as linguistically gifted as some others on this group
(nods toward Anka), besides English the only languages I know are
Spanish and a little bit of Italian. At least I will be in the
Italian-speaking region, which gives me an excuse to study the language
some more. Actually, I already know most of the food-related words,
which are after all the most important parts of Italian language and
culture My main numismatic interests are in ancients, not moderns,
though I might pick up a current Mint set in Switzerland if I see one
for sale. Again, thanks for the help, and I am very much looking
forward to my trip!

-Robert A. DeRose, Jr.