Sunday, August 16, 2020

Currency Today : Switzerland 03

 In this third post on Swiss currency, I present the 20 rappen coin.

20 rappen

The coin that is currently in circulation, was the renewed design of a coin that was introduced in 1850.
In 1879 the more modern design was adopted, and the previous coins, that contained 15% of silver, were replaced by nickel coins in 1881 and copper-nickel coins in 1939.
Pre-1938 coins were taken out of circulation, so the oldest coin you normally can encounter is from 1939.

20 rappen Switzerland

This 20 rappen coin also has a wreath, but now a national flower 'the alpine rose' (Rhododendron Ferrugineum) is depicted.

20 rappen Alpine Rose -design
Alpine rose or Rhododendron ferrugineum

There are no extreme errors like the 10 rappen coin, but there is one coin that has a beautiful error.

The 1947 coin exists in two variations, one with a dot, and one without a dot. 

20 rappen variations without and with dot

The coins with a dot, are more rare, but not extremely rare.
Rare coins are those from 1887, 1898 and 1927

to be continued ...

3 comments:

euroswiss said...

The flowers depicted are not Edelweiss but Alpenroses ! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhododendron_ferrugineum

And you wrote Switzerland wrong in your title (with 2 S) !

Best greetings from Geneva - Switzerland ! ;)

rainbowstampsandcoins.blogspot.com said...

Grüezi from Belgium,

thank you for your remark and corrections.
I was looking forward on writing something on Edelweiss, that I neglected the fact that the flower indeed is the alpine rose - my apologies.
The confusion with the s's came from the fact that in Dutch, the S and Z are switched.
Switzerland and Zwitserland... I started in English and continued in Dutch I guess.
Nevertheless, errors are corrected.

With kind regards

euroswiss said...

Super !

Yes the way of writing Switzerland in dutch is a bit confusing indeed. I am Swiss but my parents are Flemish so I know exactly what you are talking about !

You can keep your text about the edelweiss for the 5 Francs coin on which this flower is depicted !

Keep going with your nice blog !

Vlaamse groetjes uit ZwitSerland !

Jürgen