19th Century Swiss centimes

Wondering if someone could give me the Krauss 2002 and current prices on the 1850 and 1885 Switzerland 20 Centimes F, VF, XV, and Unc on each. Thanks alot in advanced!!!!

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

20 Rappen is exactly the same as 20 centimes. It's just that "Rappen" is the German term and "centimes" is the French term. That language issue (Switzerland has four official languages) is also why the Franken/franc coins simply say "Fr" and the smaller coins just have the figure indicating the value.

Christian

 

Thanks for the reply! I'm comparing a few coin prices from my birthyear (1971) Krauss. Back then, it went into the 19th Century. And I don't have a 19th Century 2002 Krauss...sooo..Thanks!

 

Doug,those coins you are referring to is the Centimes coins issued by the Canton of Geneva prior to 1848.

The coins with just a number in the centre is a way of determining the denomination without using a word for the denomination,& to save space,because there are 4 official languages in Switzerland - French,Italian,Swiss-German,& Romansch (which is spoken mainly in the Canton of Graubunden).

Aidan.

 

I'm a bit confused now..... When I was In Swissy, it was "Rappen". Are you saying that the fractional coins are also legitimately called "centimes"??

For example, the US has "cents" and that is what it is, regardless of what languange it is translated into. It is never proper to say "centimes" or "pence" in reference to US coins.

This subject does get sticky, as the Greeks have their own word for euro cents - I think they still call it by the pre-euro Greek name (lepta?).

 

Deleted. Sorry, but sometimes it takes so long until my reply gets posted that I try to post again, and then ...

Christian

 

Sure. Or "centesimi" in Italian, or "raps" in Rumansh. Maybe you were primarily in the "German" speaking parts of Switzerland.

And yes, the Greek use lepta for the cents. In Finland people say senttii, in Slovenia it's centov, in France centimes, etc. Greece is an exception, though, in that it's the only euro country that does not use "Latin" characters. So they can put the denomination in Greek characters, with Greek words, on the coins.

Well, the official names of the € units are 1 euro = 100 cent. Not "cents", not "eurocent". But there is no point in attempting to enforce that.

Christian

 

As chrisild already explained, there are 4 different manners to call "centimes" or "rappen" in Switzerland. You must imagine Switzerland has 4 official languages. That's also why they turn to Latin to put the country's name on coins: Confederatio Helvetica. It is Schweiz in German (or Schwytzerdütsch), Suisse in French, Svizzera in Italian and I don't know the name in Raeto-Roman (or Romansch). It just takes too much place to mention all of the languages.

I am living myself in a country (Belgium) which has 3 different official languages (and language groups): Flemish (or Dutch), French and German. Before the euro, we knew the frank (in Flemish or German) or franc (in french), which was worth 100 centiemen (in Flemish), centimen (in German) or centimes (in French).
As the German language group is very small (only 65.000 inhabitants in the so-called East-cantons, which were attached to Belgium after WW I), we only used to put Flemish and French on our circulation coins. To keep the balance between those language groups, we have known coins in Flemish or French, but also bilingual coins with the country names as BELGIE-BELGIQUE, but also as BELGIQUE-BELGIE (as I already explained, to keep the balance).
On commemorative coins, we have tried in several cases Latin (BELGICA) or the country names in 3 languages (BELGIE-BELGIQUE-BELGIEN). You can imagine there was not much space left to put something else on the coin!

 

Bart,do you collect the Euro coins from change? It is very strange that the European Central Bank insists on calling the sub-unit of the Euro as Cents,yet the coins are inscribed 'EURO CENT',even on the coins from the 2 Euro-Cents right up to the 50 Euro-Cents.I just use the English language form of the denomination,as the E.U. is not liked in the U.K.,especially in England itself.

Aidan.

 

It's not that the ECB "insists" - the units are called "euro" and "cent" in both singular and plural according to EU law. And the law is not made by the Central Bank but by the Council and other legislative bodies. The only reason why on the cent coins the word "euro" (in smaller characters) was added to the word "cent" is that the connection to the euro was supposed to make clear, particularly with regard to the Netherlands which had "cent" (singular and plural) coins before.

What currency a country uses, which institutions it joins or leaves, is basically up to the country. And quite obviously both the European Monetary Union and the other countries can well live with the current setup. And yes, people may of course use whatever local terms they want to use instead of "euro" and "cent". It's just that, as US law uses official terms for US coinage, EU law uses official terms for euro coinage.

(Is it possible to "split" this subject? The OP may not be interested in this ...)

Christian

 

In addition to what chrisild writes: in practice people use the terms "cent" and "eurocent" as they please, whatever the ECB dictates. As in the euro-zone no other currency is used, everyone knows we are dealing with "euro" and "eurocent". At the moment there are no other "cents" in circulation.

Yes, as a collector of world circulation coins by type, I get the eurocoins out of circulation. This is possible for most of the coins of the 12 original membercountries. The only coins of those series I have bought were the 1 and 2 cents of Finland. At the moment it is a challenge to find the commemorative 2-eurocoins in circulation.Of these coins, the Greek Olympic coin and the 2 Belgian commemoratives (2005:Belgian-Luxemburgian Economical Union and 2006: Atomium) were the only ones I found widely spread in circulation.
About the mini-states which have currency unions (Monaco with France; San Marino and Vatican City with Italy): it is almost impossible to find those coins in circulation (for the Vatican it is even totally impossible, as they only issue those coins in sets). Nevertheless, I got the Monaco 1 and 2 euro through a friend who encountered them in circulation.
Are you interested in some? I certainly am interested in the new NewZealand series.

 

Bart,I am interested in the ones from Ireland,as it depicts the harp,just like on all other Irish coins since 1928.I have the 2002 issue,which always turns up,but I recently picked up a battered Irish 2004 1 Euro-Cent.The Irish Euro coins are of interest to me,as Ireland was a member of the British Commonwealth right up until 1949.It will be very good when Cyprus & Malta start issuing their own Euro coins & print their own Euro notes.I don't know what serial number prefixes have been assigned,as the Irish Euro notes have the letter 'T' at the start of the serial numbers on the backs of the Euro notes.I have a 5 Euro & a 10 Euro from Ireland,both dated 2002 & with the signature of the late Wim Duisenberg,who was a Dutchman & the first President of the European Central Bank.The Irish Euro coins dated 2003 & later are always hard to find.

Have you ever studied the mintmarks & privy marks on the Euro coins.The Luxembourgish ones are of interest,as you can tell which ones were struck prior to 2002,just by looking at the Royal Dutch Mint's privy marks.There is a section in another part of the board that is about the mintmarks & privy marks on the Euro coins.You will find that to be a very good read.

Aidan.