Schutzenfeste: I was hoping you'd read this trivia. Just imagine you and me taking a numismatic trip back in time to the year 1857 during a magical time located in Berne, Switzerland, the land of the annual Schutzenfeste. Look at all the people in town wanting to celebrate this festive occasion. Before you get wrapped up in all the excitement, let me point out that Schutzenfeste in English is Shooting Festival. It is an annual traditional festival celebrated in the Swiss Cantons, Northwest regions of Germany as well as in Bavaria. It is a kind of local fair featuring a shooting match among members of the local marksmen's association and usually takes place in summer. At a Schützenfeste, contestants compete their shooting abilities, for example by shooting at a wooden representation of an eagle. The winner of the competition becomes the 'Schützenkönig' ("king of marksmen") until the next year's competition. Since this is 1857, you'll notice, that all the participants in the shootout are carrying their own rifles. The first Shooting Festival was held way back in the 15th century using crossbows. These festivals proved to be very lucrative for the individual cantons, so a Federal Shooting Festival (Eidgenossiche) was initiated in 1824 and was held in the following cantons: After 1798 Shooting Festival coins are in Francs, not Thalers and some of those after 1935 do not contain silver. NOTE: (FROM WIKIPEDIA) "The Thaler was the currency of the Swiss canton of Berne until 1798. It was subdivided into 40 Batzen, each of 4 Kreuzer. It was replaced by the Frank of the Helvetian Republic in 1798. This was, in turn, replaced by the Berne Frank." 1834 Zurich 1838 Saint Gallen 1843 Chur 1849 Aarau and future festivals will be held in the following cantons during the dates noted: 1861 Stans 1867 Schwyz 1874 Saint Gallen 1885 Berne and Kirchenfeld 1890 Frauenfeld 1904 Saint Gallen 1907 Zurich 1910 Berne and Wankdorffeld 1924 Aarau 1929 Bellinzona 1940 Lucerne 1947 Chur 1954 Lausanne 1958 Biel 1963 Zurich 1969 Thun 1972 Biel 1977 Zurich 1985 Chur 1990Winterthur 1995 Thun 2000 Biere 2005 Frauenfeld Come with me into this beer garden. Notice the silver coins being offered by the customers are silver dollar-sized and are called Thalers. Thalers were the coin of much of Europe for about 400 years, but eventually they'll give way to the frank. During that 400 year period, all cantons in Switzerland minted their own coinage including the Berne Thaler. Thus, you have Berne Thalers, Saint Gallen Thalers, Zurich Thalers and all cantons in Switzerland plus these German States: Bad Berle, North Rhine, Westphalia, Biberac an der Ricf, Baden Wurttemberg, Hannover, Lower Saxony, Neuss, Hovelhof, Oestinghausen, Rietberg, Salzkotten, and Balve. Here's the obverse of a Solothurn 1855 Thaler: Images courtesy of Zumbo: http://www.zumbo.ch/coins/ch/jpegs_l/chsh05da.jpg and here's the reverse: http://www.zumbo.ch/coins/ch/jpegs_l/chsh05dr.jpg Wonder what an 1859 Zurich Shooting Thaler looks like? Take a look: Obverse: http://www.zumbo.ch/coins/ch/jpegs_l/chsh05fa.jpg Reverse: http://www.zumbo.ch/coins/ch/jpegs_l/chsh05fr.jpg What about an 1872 Zurich? First the obverse: http://www.zumbo.ch/coins/ch/jpegs_l/chsh05la.jpg and the reverse: http://www.zumbo.ch/coins/ch/jpegs_l/chsh05lr.jpg After seeing the three coins already presented, is there any wonder why there are so many Shooting Thaler collectors? T o further whet your appetite look at the next ones I have chosen to show you. An 1861 Stans Shooting Thaler: http://www.zumbo.ch/coins/ch/jpegs_l/chsh05ga.jpg Here's the reverse: http://www.zumbo.ch/coins/ch/jpegs_l/chsh05gr.jpg An 1874 Saint Gallen awaits your approval: Obverse: http://www.zumbo.ch/coins/ch/jpegs_l/chsh05ma.jpg Reverse: http://www.zumbo.ch/coins/ch/jpegs_l/chsh05mr.jpg And now for the real reason we've arrived here in Berne. Every canton hosting a Shooting Festival strikes a special Thaler to commemorate the event. It's called a Shooting Thaler. We can pick one up at that bank. Shooting Thalers were not struck for general circulation, but as a commemorative of the festival, however many banks and local businesses within the canton accept them as lawful currency. Now let's take a look at our Berne 1857 Thaler: Images courtesy of Zunbo: Isn't this obverse a good representation of the Festival? http://www.zumbo.ch/coins/ch/jpegs_l/chsh05ea.jpg And this reverse is a work of art! http://www.zumbo.ch/coins/ch/jpegs_l/chsh05er.jpg Now come with me back to the present inside the Smithsonian Instution. See that 1804 Silver Dollar? It is the rarest of all the 1804s. It was struck without authorization between 1857 and 1860 over a 1857 Berne Shooting Thaler. Look close: http://www.coinfacts.com/silver_dollars/1804_dollars/mint_1804_silver_dollar_class2.htm For those of you who collect "shooting" coins, here's a 1934 example of a Swiss "Shooting 5 Frank" coin: Image courtesy of World Coin Gallery: http://worldcoingallery.com/countries/coin.php?image=nmc1/172-s18&desc=Switzerland%20kms18%205%20Francs%20(1934)%20Shooting%20Festival Please let me know if you enjoyed this trivia. Clinker
That was very interesting & they looked like wonderful coins So for making me want them I now hate you LOL Thanks for the great write up :thumb:
Once again, Clinker. Very well done. This brings up a funny story about when I was taking German back in high school. We had to draw pictures of a verb taking place, and one of those verbs was "schiessen", meaning "to shoot". If you flip the "i" and "e" you get a very different word, and one of my friends wanted to draw a picture of that, until he realized he had it spelled wrong.
I commismerate with those friends. . back in 1957 I was stationed in the 272 MP Detachment inside Berlin... I was lucky that almost all the German people I had contact with spoke English, many spoke it better than I... Clinker.
Thanks for taking the time to post another well written and informative article Clinker. Quite a few attractive pieces and interesting background to go with it.
Shutzenfest here too ..! Yes, very informative and a pleasure to read. Just so happens there's a shutzenfest held annually here in South Australia also - and one heck of a long ways from Europe. Just Google 'Shutzenfest Adelaide SA' , for what it's worth. Cheers, Les PS As I recall, seems actually more about drinking beer than anything else!
goodasgold Shooting Festivals have been promoted in a few countries, including the U.S....and a great big T H A N K S for the addendum....and... the Festivals could have been called Beer Festivals and been served in "shot" glasses...heehee. Clinker
Great story. Sure wish I could print ones like this out but with all the links noted it would do no good to print it out. Years from now those sites may not be available. Nice story though. If I entered a shootout like that I would naturally cheat and use a machine gun. I'm a lousey marksman. Interesting story.
Just Carl Take a look at the coin photo/s and replace the image/s with a description paragraph. Clinker
