Vreneli (aka Goldvreneli) is the informal name for a range of legal tender

gold coin A gold coin is a coin that is made mostly or entirely of gold. Most gold coins minted since 1800 are 90–92% gold (22fineness#Karat, karat), while most of today's gold bullion coins are pure gold, such as the Britannia (coin), Britannia, Canad ...

s of the

Swiss franc The Swiss franc, or simply the franc, is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It is also legal tender in the Italian exclave of Campione d'Italia which is surrounded by Swiss territory. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) iss ...

. The coins were issued between 1897 and 1936, in 1947 and in 1949. All coins issued after 1936 are restrikes (legal tender ceased September 29, 1936). The coin exists in three denominations, of 10, 20 and 100 francs. The 20 franc coin was produced from 1897 to 1949 with a total issue of 58.6 million pieces. It replaced an earlier design of gold coin minted from 1883 to 1896. The 10 franc version was minted from 1911 to 1922 (total issue 2.6 million pieces), and the 100 franc version was minted in 1925 only (total issue 5,000 pieces). All coins have a

purity Purity may refer to: Books * ''Pureza'' (novel), a 1937 Brazilian novel by José Lins do Rego * ''Purity'' (novel), a 2015 novel by Jonathan Franzen ** ''Purity'' (TV series), a TV series based on the novel *''Purity'', a 2012 novel by Jackson ...

of 900 ‰ gold and were minted to the standards of the

Latin Monetary Union The Monetary Convention of 23 December 1865 was a unified system of coinage that provided a degree of monetary integration among several European countries, initially Belgium, France, Italy and Switzerland, at a time when the circulation of bank ...

. The name ''Vreneli'' was given to the design of a female head in profile by

Neuchâtel Neuchâtel (, ; ; ) is a list of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital (political), capital of the cantons of Switzerland, Swiss canton of Neuchâtel (canton), Neuchâtel on Lake Neuchâtel ...

medalist Fritz Ulisse Landry. A more formal name is Helvetia Head (German ''Helvetiakopf'', French ''Tête d'Helvetia'', as opposed to the Seated Helvetia (''Sitzende Helvetia'', ''Helvetia assise'') or the Standing Helvetia).

Description

These coins had face values of 10, 20 and 100

s and were minted in a millesimal fineness of 900. The coins are sometimes colloquially called “Swiss Miss,” from the obvious obverse motif. The 20 franc coin's reverse shows the Swiss shield, featuring the Swiss Cross, and a wreath of oak along with the denomination. The coins were minted at the Swiss Mint at Bern (although the die engraving was done at the Paris mint) and the coins are mint marked with a "B" (without a period). The 20 franc coins are 21 mm in diameter (about the size of a U.S. five cent piece), 1.25 mm in thickness, weigh 6.45 grams (gross weight) and; at 900 ‰ pure, contain .1866 troy ounces or 5.805 grams of pure gold. The 10 franc coin weighs 3.23 grams and at 900 ‰ purity contains of pure gold.

Key mintage figures

Around 61 million coins were minted, although only 5,000 of the 100 franc pieces were produced and only in the year 1925. The 20 Franc coin is the most common, and it is popular as a

bullion coin A bullion coin (also known as a specie) is a coin struck from highly refined precious metal (bullion) and kept as a store of value or an investment rather than used in day-to-day commerce, or collectable, with numismatic value beyond that of its ...

1926 - 20 francs

Among the 20 franc pieces, the 1926 coin with its mintage of only 50,000 pieces is the ostensible key to that series. However, the 1926 is relatively fairly common and the real keys to the series are said to be the 1903 and the 1904. This is based upon the fact that the major coin grading services have graded less than 10 coins of each date in all grades, while the 1926 has a graded population of over 200. Of course, populations depend upon the numbers of coins actually submitted by collectors which is inexorable tied to the popularity of a coin series, or lack thereof among collectors. For a critique of population reports see Doug Winter's essay, February 2002.

1925 - 100 francs

The 100 franc denomination was only struck in 1925 with a very limited mintage of 5,000.

The 10-franc series

The 10 franc denomination was struck in 1911 (100,000) through 1916 (130,000), inclusive, and in 1922 (1,020,000). Although the obverse is the same for the 10, 20 and 100 franc pieces, the reverse of the 10 and 100 are common depicting a radiant Swiss Cross above a branch.

The re-strikes of 1935

In 1935, 175,000 regular strikes of the 20 franc coins were produced. However, an additional twenty million (20,008,813) coins dated "L1935B" with the "L" indicating "lingot" or bullion and the "B" indicating the Bern mint, were re-struck in 1945 (3,500,000), 1946 (7,108,813) and 1947 (9,400,000). An additional 9,200,000 coins contemporaneously struck and dated in 1947 were also produced and are distinguished by the mint mark "B". There were no regular strikes produced in the years 1945 and 1946.

History

The 20 francs gold coin was introduced in 1883, in the same design as the 5 francs coin at the time (with the Liberty head by Albert Walch, facing left, on the obverse, and a coat of arms designed by Albert Walch on the reverse). The "head of Liberty" design is often also identified as "Helvetia". The 20 franc denomination with the aforementioned specifications (size and alloy and gold content) was first established by Napoleon for France in 1803. The denomination/specifications remained in usage until the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

under what was known as the Latin Monetary League. Switzerland constituted itself in Confederation in 1848. It adopted the Swiss Franc, and aligned its currency on the

French franc The franc (; , ; currency sign, sign: F or Fr), also commonly distinguished as the (FF), was a currency of France. Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amoun ...

in 1850. It joined the Latin Union in December 1865. Switzerland had Swiss 20 franc pieces,

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

had 20 peseta coins,

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had 20 lira pieces,

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

had 20 Belgian franc coins,

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

had 20 lei coins and

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

had 20 drachmas coins all of which circulated and were accepted throughout Europe. For political reasons the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

and the German Empires decided not to follow this direction. Attempts were even taken to explore the unification of the European currency with the American dollar, which explains the extremely rare U.S. Stella carrying an unusual face value of $4, which contained the same amount of gold as the Swiss 20 francs coins. In 1895, the Federal Council decided that the coin should be made with a novel design. From a total of 21 suggestions, a depiction of

Helvetia Helvetia () is a national personification of Switzerland, officially , the Swiss Confederation. The allegory is typically pictured in a flowing clothing, with a spear and a shield emblazoned with the Flag of Switzerland, Swiss flag, and commo ...

by Neuchâtel artist Fritz Ulysse Landry (1842–1927) won second place. His Helvetia figure was criticized as too young and romantic, and the alpine panorama as too intrusive. Landry revisited his design and the revised design was chosen for the coin. It shows a female head with tresses in profile, with a

garland A garland is a decorative braid, knot or wreath of flowers, leaves, or other material. Garlands can be worn on the head or around the neck, hung on an inanimate object, or laid in a place of cultural or religious importance. In contemporary times ...

edelweiss ''Leontopodium nivale'', commonly called edelweiss () ( ; or ), is a mountain flower belonging to the daisy or sunflower family Asteraceae. The plant prefers rocky limestone places at about altitude. It is a non-toxic plant. Its leaves and f ...

and an alpine panorama. Landry in a letterof 1895 mentions that he modelled the design on a "very pure type of women of Hasli" (the Oberhasli district of the

Bernese Oberland The Bernese Oberland (; ; ), sometimes also known as the Bernese Highlands, is the highest and southernmost part of the canton of Bern. It is one of the canton's five administrative regions (in which context it is referred to as ''Oberland'' witho ...

). Suggestions for the identity of his model include and Rosa Tännler (at the time aged 17), or Françoise Kramer-Egli (at the time aged 36). A trial run of only 12 pieces shows the head with an additional forelock which was removed as "too frivolous". The final design was still criticized as still too frivolous for a national representation, but at the same time it was widely popular and given the endearing nickname of ''Vreneli''. The new series was authorized by the law on January 6, 1896. The name of the coin is a

Swiss German Swiss German (Standard German: , ,Because of the many different dialects, and because there is no #Conventions, defined orthography for any of them, many different spellings can be found. and others; ) is any of the Alemannic German, Alemannic ...

affectionate diminutive of the female given name " Verena". This name, in its diminutive form also used as a ''

pars pro toto ; ; ), is a figure of speech where the name of a ''portion'' of an object, place, or concept is used or taken to represent its entirety. It is distinct from a merism, which is a reference to a whole by an enumeration of parts; and metonymy, where ...

'' for female youths, is historically well-known and traditionally popular in Switzerland. A 2011 article in ''

Neue Zürcher Zeitung The (''NZZ''; "New Newspaper of Zurich") is German language daily newspaper, published by NZZ Mediengruppe in Zurich. The paper was founded in 1780. It has a reputation as a high-quality newspaper, as the German Swiss newspaper of record ...

'' reported that part of the gold used for the coinage of Vrenelis originated from the

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

vian Madre de Dios region. The article drew a connection to the current environmental damage and health issues for the miners reported from the gold mines in the region.''Neue Zürcher Zeitung'', March 12, 2011, p. 13

Notes and references

External links

Swissmint - The 160 Years of swiss franc
A brief historical discourse, swissmint.ch (in English)
Das Goldvreneli
swissmint.ch (in German)
Vreneli - Online Coin Club
onlinecoin.club (in English)
Guide to the Swiss Gold Vreneli: dates, value and history
{{Authority control Economy of Switzerland Currencies of Switzerland Gold coins Bullion coins