Gordian Medallion just a tad out of my price range

- Broucheion

 

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Switzerland is one of many countries who’s native name is entirely different from the English one

 

I read your post. Maybe try HARDER. I searched once and found the answer in under two seconds.

 

It told me it was a Swiss Franc that was all.

 

But what is the native name for Switzerland? Die Schweiz? Suisse? Svizzera? Svizra?

None are too far distant from the English, compared to Deutschland, Zhongguo, Suomi, Sverige, Hrvatska, etc.

 

Apparently yoy can go plenty of ways for Switzerland.

similarly you call call the United States of America, America, US, USA, United States, Usonia...

 

On their postage stamps, it says "Helvetia."

 

Speaking of countries with names as printed on postage stamps that look mysterious to an English speaker, there's another obvious example that I had to learn during my brief career as a stamp collector (ages 7-9), before I saw the light: ΕΛΛΑΣ.

 

Wow, you've been a member only about a month and they put you in charge of discipline already. Congratulations! Seriously, sometimes it's OK to ask questions that could be Googled. Others might be interested in the answer, and it might result in an entertaining discussion. Besides, you spent more time chastising @spirityoda than he did asking the question.

 

Ah yes, collecting Greek banknotes that say "ΤΡΆΠΕΖΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΆΔΟΣ" I was pretty confused that the GREECE never showed up anywhere on the note

 

If you google "what does CHF mean" you get a page of pages on "congestive heart failure"

 

It is ok. I usually do the research myself. I regret the way I worded it in my #19 post. I guess I was just tired. In the end I got the answer. No problem.

 

Yes... that is what I got. lol In my google search.

 

To be fair, a price tag of $150k CHF for any medallion is certainly grounds for some ccongestive heart failure

 

But that's not the name of the country. It's the female personification of Switzerland, used because otherwise they'd have to write it in all four languages, which won't fit on a postage stamp.

 

I started collecting stamps when I was about 7 as well. For years I hilariously mispronounced the names of several countries.

CCCP - (actually pronounced S S S R)
Curacao - I literally pronounced it Koo-ra-ka-oh
Kiribati - It wasn't until a few years ago that I learned the actual pronunciation (kiribus)

I liked UK stamps the least, since they never put the name of the country on their stamps. I always felt it was arrogant. I also kept confusing stamps from Wales vs Scotland.

 

Very true ! Switzerland is a relatively small country but there have 4 languages : German (well... some dialect of their own they dare to call German), Italian, French and Romanche which is only spoken in one or two valleys. They did not want to chose one of them for their coin legends, the other languages speakers would never accept it, so they decided to use Latin. On their banknotes, there is enough space to use all the four official languages.



When I was a kid I believed the CH tag on cars meant "Chuiche".

 

And their 1 Franc coin types have never changed since 1875 !



which makes collecting Swiss coins one of the most boring hobbies one can imagine .

 

No more boring than a lot of U.S. coins!