Swiss 5-Franc, 180-Degree Die Rotation, Which Is It?

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Author	Replies: 6 / Views: 7,464
Bottleguy Valued Member United States 112 Posts	Posted 11/04/2007 11:32 pm I was in Switzerland for a while last year and had a few Swiss 5-Francs in my pocket..... I noticed that all of the 1980-2000 ones had the reverse 180-degrees off from American coins (flip the coin over side-to-side and the reverse was still upright). So I thought, "Oh, those crazy Swiss.... they just have to be different, don't they?!?". Then I got a 1968 Swiss 5-Franc. This one has the reverse rotated 180-degrees, like our American coins. So, which one is it?!? A rotational die-error, or are those Swiss folks just inconsistent? (their clocks do keep great time, though!). Here are two pictures of the two coins side-by-side, flipped over. One of the reverses is clearly rotated 180-degrees. The other is not. Any thoughts? (This has been driving me crazy since I got back) Thanks, Rick BTW, that's William Tell on the obverse..... Report this Post to the Staff

blueczar1512 Valued Member Australia 112 Posts	Posted 11/05/2007 01:43 am I checked my swiss coins and all my low denominations have the reverse upright except for some 1951-80 1/2 francs which are rotated. Then a 1 franc from 1970 is rotated while a 1983 is upright. The 1968 2 francs I have is also rotated and there is a 5 franc from 1979 which is rotated. So my guess is the smaller coins have always been upright, the larger ones were changed from rotated to upright c. 1980-2 Report this Post to the Staff
Sap Moderator Australia 16810 Posts	Posted 11/05/2007 03:11 am quote: ...or are those Swiss folks just inconsistent? That's the answer, blueczar's observations are correct. According to Krause, all denominations from ½ franc up to 5 francs switched from "coin alignment" (same as US coins) to "medal alignment" (same as British and Euro coins) in 1982. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis Report this Post to the Staff
blueczar1512 Valued Member Australia 112 Posts	Posted 11/05/2007 03:38 am Its a pretty big change for the swiss! Their coins stayed almost exactly the same in the whole 20th century Report this Post to the Staff
Sap Moderator Australia 16810 Posts	Posted 11/05/2007 05:39 am ...and then the following year (1983), the coins changed again. An extra star was added on the ½ franc to 2 francs, to represent Jura, Switzerland's newest canton (state). So the 1982 coins (22 stars, medal alignment) are one-year types. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis Report this Post to the Staff
chrisild Pillar of the Community Germany 1238 Posts	Posted 11/07/2007 1:45 pm Side note - the man depicted on the 5 fr coin is not Wilhelm Tell but an alp shepherd (Alphirte). Some background information, in German, about the design competition, the designer Paul Burkhard, and who the shepherd was possibly modeled after, is here: http://www.swissmint.ch/upload/_pdf...5FR-BURK.pdf Christian Report this Post to the Staff
Bottleguy Valued Member United States 112 Posts	Posted 11/07/2007 8:22 pm Thanks for the info Christian (although I can't read German, I'll take your word for it) ...... I was told by a Swiss relative-in-law that it was William Tell.... Rick Edited by Bottleguy 11/07/2007 8:23 pm Report this Post to the Staff
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