2 Newps; Miss Swiss

Chrisild,

Can you explain why these coins are no longer legal tender? That would be most appreciated!

And sometimes I cannot understand the standard system either... I think the whole world should be standard, or the whole world metric, that would make a ton more sense.

 

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The "silverish" Swiss circulation coins are all Cu-Ni these days. So the older ones, such as the pure nickel 20 rappen pieces and the silver (1/2 F, 1 F, 2F) coins, were taken out of circulation. They are still redeemable though; that is, you could take them to the SNB (central bank) and get current cash for them. Which is also why, once in a while, you come across such an "invalid" piece in the wild.

Christian

 

Makes me wonder why the United States hasn't removed the silver currency...
Is there some reason exactly why they did that, I mean what is the big deal if they were using the old silver currency?

 

Actually, the U.S. did remove silver coins for circulation. In the mid to late 1960s, the public was afraid that the new copper-nickel clad coins would supersede the older silver coins in circulation, so the mint assured the public that both coin types would circulate together freely for years to come, all the while using machinery to remove and melt millions of silver coins. Combine this with the mass melting of silver coins caused by the antics of the Hunt brothers, and you come to the conclusion that 1950s-1960s "common date" silver coins are probably not all that common. I'd be willing to bet that our neutral friends, the Swiss, did the same as our government after the silver was removed from their coinage. I believe that was 1968, but I could be off.

 

But we can still use the coins, is what I'm saying. I think I mis-understood what Christian said. I thought he said that you can't use the coins anymore, a mistake on my part

 

No, that is pretty much what I wrote. Pretty much every country in this world (the US is an, or maybe the only, exception) sets "deadlines" for coins and notes that are not supposed to stay in circulation. Typically a government would say that this coin or that note will cease to be legal tender as from 1 January 20xx. After that, it can be redeemed; in some countries such redemption periods are unlimited (which means you can exchange the old money "forever"), in others they are limited to a couple of years.

As far as I know, one of the reasons in Switzerland for taking those old (nickel and silver) coins out of circulation was that they would not work with vending machines and the like. Now you may say "so what?", and that is why I mentioned that you may still come across such an old coin. Here in Germany, on the other hand, the pre-euro coins and notes can also be redeemed forever, but you are extremely unlikely to find them in your change.

Christian

 

But LEGALLY, if you paid for something at a supermarket over there, you could still use these coins, right? Yay or Nay?

 

Nay. See here: http://www.swissmint.ch/upload/_pdf/dokumentationen/d/KGuNKG-CHMuenzen.pdf
The current 1 fr coins are in the first part ("legal tender") of that list. The older ones are in the second part ("withdrawn") ...

Christian

 

Okay so I thought I misunderstood.
What I said earlier was correct, when I was wondering why the United States hasn't done this. If we have silver coins, we can go out and use them to buy something at a supermarket, unlike these older Swiss coins.

 

Should not keep you from enjoying your Swiss Misses. What I also find interesting is that, design wise, most Swiss circulation coins have not really changed since 1880 or so ...

Christian

 

Any official U.S. coin ever minted (with the exception of the trade dollar) is legal tender today. I could take 25 1795 large cents and buy a pack of gum, or a $20 double eagle and buy a few gallons of gas. Not that I would, but I could. In Germany, there have been several different governments in the past 200 years. German states, Empire, Weimar, Third Reich, DDR and BRD (I believe it was known as the Bundesrepublik Deutschland, but that might not be right), unification and now the European Union. There were so many different currencies, it would be nearly impossible to figure out the value for something as old as a Reichspfennig, not to mention the stigma attached to anything "reich", even if it's Weimar era.

 

I find that very interesting as well. Our Lincoln cent has been around for 100 years, but the Swiss coins eclipse that. I would think that they're probably the longest continually running design in the world, unless you count the Maria Theresa thaler, which I don't because it's really just a bullion issue.

 

As I mentioned before, every coin or note ever issued in this country (Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Federal Republic of Germany), between when it was founded in 1949 and today, can be redeemed and turned into euro cash "forever". The one single exception is the 2 DM coin issued in 1951, no idea why. But that is worth much more than face anyway.

And yes, of course the coins and notes from earlier or different countries are not valuable in this country any more. Try and spend Confederate currency in the US.

But the Swiss coins depicted here show very nicely that this is not necessarily a matter of political changes. The economic and political system in Switzerland today is by and large the same as a couple of years ago, and yet these two "older" coins are not legal tender any more ...

Christian

 

Confederate currency was not printed by the U.S. government. It was printed by a completely separate and independent foreign government. It's the same way that a coin minted by the Hawaiian government before it became a territory is not legal tender - it wasn't issued by the U.S. government. I'm not a paper collector, but from what I can remember, few if any actual official paper notes have ever been devalued or recalled in this country. I know for a fact that no coins were, excepting the trade dollar I mentioned earlier.

 

Exactly. Likewise, the Federal Republic of Germany redeems the money issued by the Federal Republic, not any money issued by other countries or governments. But the main point here is that in most places - including many politically and economically stable countries - it is pretty normal that at some point "old money" is not legal tender any more. Typically the new cash (be it a single note that replaces a current note of the same value, or an entirely new currency) will be introduced; at some later point the old cash loses its legal tender status, but it will still be redeemable.

And in some cases the government may even limit that redemption period, so that after a couple of years the old cash becomes worthless. While other countries will avoid that last step, it may well be a perfectly normal thing ...

Christian

 

I understand your point, I was just pointing out that this is not the case in the United States. I don't know if you're interested paper money, but I did read something very interesting on the subject of devaluing U.S. currency. During WWII, the U.S. issued notes for use in Hawaii and North Africa that were legal tender, but they had yellow and brown seals and were stamped with their respective country names. This was done so that in the event of an invasion, the currency could quickly be devalued without devaluing all currency. I don't know if other allied nations took similar measures, but I'm sure some did.

 

Don't collect "paper" but it is interesting indeed. May well be that other countries have done that too. Which reminds me, Switzerland currently uses the "8th series" of banknotes; the 9th will be issued as from next year. And what did people use before the 8th series? Right, the 6th series ...

The notes of the 4th series (1938) and the 7th series (1976) were designed, and to some extent printed, but never issued. In the former case that was probably done in order to be prepared in case of war; the series from the 70s could have been issued if there had been major problems with counterfeiting.

Hope that tmoneyeagles does not mind the little excursion.

Christian