The swiss Franc was silver until 1967, with the five Franc coin also silver in 1969. While liquidating a collection, I found 7 of these silver coins. Being an unusual composition (83.5% silver) I was unable to get a good price for them and bought them for myself. (an example (not mine) is below) These coins contain .42 ASW, which at $27 silver, makes them worth 11.34 each. Looking back historically, during Bretton Woods $1 = 4.375 francs, wich would make our 5 Franc coin worth $1.14, which at .715 ASW to the dollar (fractional coinage) gives the dollar about .82 ASW to our 5 swiss franc coin. I imagine this was the worth in 1964 (last year of 90% coinage). Fast forward to 2010: The Swiss Franc is at Parity to the dollar (or close enough). The silver value of the 5 Franc coin is 11.34, or 2.27 times melt. The dollar is at 19.3 times melt (at 27 dollar silver). What happened to our money? Inflation. The Swiss Franc until 2000 had to be backed by 40% in Gold.
The Fed Reserve Bank happened to our money. Before 1913, before the Fed, the dollar gained value on average. After the Fed, the dollar has done NOTHING other than fall. I am not neccesarily pro-gold standard, but to have a private bank set up to bypass the Constitutional requirement to back money with "gold and silver coin" and have the private bank run a FIAT system is lunacy. Wilson set up the bank and regretted it before his death. He knew way back then it was a mistake.
Just as an FYI, it seems the silver content may be .4027 ASW, not .42 like I posted. Anyone able to confirm?
