Swiss and French coins

I've recently fallen in love with the "Helvetia" coins from Switzerland. I'm interested in the pre-1968 coins which were made from .835 silver. In 1968 they switched over to a cupronickel composition and weren't nearly as valuable. These coins remind me of American coins like the standing Liberty quarter and the walking Liberty half. They're both simple and intricate at the same time. The 1/2 franc, 1 franc, and 2 franc coins use similar designs but it's such a beautiful design so who cares? They're also a good value. An excellent silver 1/2 franc coin can be had for a song. These are all seller pictures. The 1 franc coin is in much better condition than it looks in pictures.

Does anybody else admire these coins? What other foreign coins combine beautiful design, silver content, and low cost?

1946-B 1/2 franc



1963-B 1 franc


1894-A 2 francs



The French franc coins are beautiful in the same way "golden age" American coins and the Swiss Helvetia coins are. This one reminds me of the walking Liberty half. I think I read somewhere that the designers of the "golden age" American coins of the 1910s were influenced by the French coinage.

1917 French 1 franc

 

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Yes, try the Philippines from the turn of the century through to WWII. Also the Peru "Sol-type" coinages from 1860's through to the 20's. I like your avatar. I'm Checotah.

 

I like the Swiss silver.
But I like their gold even more.

 

The Helvetia figure on those Swiss coins is quite beautiful and elegant. These were not on my radar until the other day when I found a 1/2 franc in my pocket change. I have found that I gravitate towards crown sized early 20th century coins with the stand/walking/sitting liberty figure such as the Panamanian Balboa or Peruvian Sol. You've hit on a great collecting theme.
Cheers!

 

I have a few of an old coins from Switzerland.

 

Canton Vaud.

 

Canton Bern.

 

Canton Zurich.

 

The Swiss coins also hit me one day like that too. I think their smaller denominations are interesting, like their 5, 10 and 20 rappen. I just wish their 20th century ones were pure nickel instead of cupronickel. The cupronickel tends to tarnish worse in my opinion. I think some of these smaller denominations were actually nickel in the very early 1900s, which is cool. It's hard to beat the beauty and value you can get for the francs and half francs. However, the French denominations of the same size and that are silver are also great deals you should look into. I collect mainly world coins of the 1900s. I started out heavily on just a handful of countries but once I started learning more, I came to love just about all world coins. It's a great field to get into

 

Here's a few Swiss silver it's not much .

 

Here's some old and new swiss,

 

Some of my Swiss; I've been collecting these for a while:

5 Francs (Crown size):









10 Francs



(Certified coin pictures from HA.Com)

 

I get my kicks on route 66... I'm OKC

I know i have swiss coins somewhere around here.

 

I'm in Tulsa.

 

I've grown rather fond of these two designs lately.

 

Next on my list is to get a set of proof coins from Switzerland. I don't care if they're all from the same year or not. Then it's some French silver.

 

Nice coins, gentlemen.

 

The coins from Greece and South Africa may not exactly be Swiss or French but both are good looking designs. Here is a recent series of French collector coins that show the Sower (Semeuse) in motion, provided you buy several or all. A little abstract but quite elegant methinks.

The article is in German, but you can see the images on the left. Here is an image (from CGB) of one of the coins:



Christian

 

I've just started collecting French coins, and working on photographing the few I've bought so far. The lighting varies across these as I've been trying different things and finding different light setups seem to work better on different metals. But it could just be my learning curve

 

Want to see some French coins? I got "hoards" of them!

Pictures below. Top 2 photos show a few stacks of all the denominations from 1/2 Franc to 10 Francs Bi-Metal, to show everything that I have bagged up on the floor below.













Here's the count...

4480 x 1/2 Franc (1965-2000)
3300 x 1 Franc (1960-2001)
2880 x 2 Francs (1979-2000)
465 x 5 Francs (1970-1995)
2400 x 10 Francs (Bi-Metal) (1988-2000)
197 x 10 Francs (Brass) (1974-1987)

Many of the coins are made of .999 pure nickel. 1/2 Fr, 1 Fr, and 2 Fr coins can be considered bullion coins. I payed pretty much spot price for most of the nickel coins. The 5 Francs are cupro-nickel which has only 25% nickel but they are enjoyable to have. And I love the Bi-Metal 10 Francs, those are must haves.

I also have lots of Centimes, in 5/10/20 denominations. These are the bronze (or brass?) ones made from the 60's to 2000. A dealer in UK ships these to me for almost FREE, he just charges me additional shipping and includes these in with other lots I buy together. It's UPS Express Saver by the way, which is extremely inexpensive when everything is said and done. (last package I received was 10kg and it was only $50 shipping.)

As far as France, that's about it! I used to have a couple silver 5 Francs from the 1870's and 1880's a year ago. I liked them and regret selling. Maybe if I get another silver coin soon I'll share that. I remember I used to own an AU looking 1876-A 5 Francs. What a beauty.

Hope the post isn't too long!