Implementing the reform: minting abroad, the great exchange and the federal mint

Coins from Paris, Strasbourg and Brussels

The Confederation had no mint capable of producing the required volume of coin in time. Speiser, who had written the expert opinion, was also charged with its implementation. He organised the tenders, evaluated the bids and negotiated contracts with three mints, in Paris, Strasbourg and Brussels, which struck the new coins from the one-rappen copper piece to the silver five-franc piece.¹ The Historical Lexicon notes that the silver coins were struck in Paris in 1850 and 1851 and that the former mint of Bern became the federal mint from 1855.²

That the first coins of the new national currency were struck abroad is a telling detail. The founders of the federal state were not concerned with symbolic autarky. Needing a sound coinage quickly and at reasonable cost, they bought the service where it was available. The same pragmatism would characterise Swiss monetary policy in the decades that followed, when Switzerland relied on French gold coins for much of its circulation and entered a monetary union to secure the quality of the silver coins circulating on its territory.

The great exchange of 1851 and 1852

The replacement of the old coinages was organised canton by canton. According to the account of Speiser’s role published by the Basel bank Trafina, the exchange began on 1 August 1851 in Geneva and proceeded through the cantons over about twelve months, until September 1852.³ The Zurich museum publication describes the result in summary: between summer 1851 and 1852 the old coins were withdrawn from circulation throughout the country, and all titles of debt and ownership were converted into the new currency.⁴

The procedure in Thurgau, documented in an online edition of the cantonal regulations, shows how the exchange worked in practice. The conversion began on 17 May 1852 with a redemption period of two months. During the first month, redemptions took place successively in the communes, managed by the district governors (Bezirksstatthalter), before being centralised at the district offices during the second month. From 17 June 1852 no private person was obliged to accept the old coins at any rate. A month later, from 17 July 1852, they ceased to be accepted even by public cash offices. There was no single rate of conversion. The tariff listed hundreds of individual coin types, each with its own value in new francs: a Genevan gold piece of twenty francs was valued at 20 new francs, a Lucerne gold piece of ten francs at 14.25 new francs, and the various new thalers of the cantons at between 5.70 and 5.78 new francs. The district officials received ten new francs a day for their work during the communal redemptions.⁵

These details reveal the administrative capacity that the new federal state and the cantons could mobilise. Within about a year, a multitude of coinages that had circulated for centuries was valued, collected, exchanged and removed from circulation, while the obligations denominated in them were converted. The operation relied on the co-operation of the cantonal administrations, which in turn relied on the communes. It drew on a precise tariff of values that reflected the actual metal content of each coin. Although it was a technical operation of considerable complexity, it succeeded without major crisis.

For creditors and debtors the conversion raised delicate questions. A mortgage or a Gült denominated in Zurich gulden, a rent fixed in Bernese francs of the old currency or a bill of exchange drawn in Brabant thalers had to be restated in new francs. The conversion rate determined whether the creditor gained or lost. The tariffs attempted to base conversions on metal content, which was the most neutral principle available. For the banks, the conversion was an opportunity. Exchange business peaked during the transition, giving the institutions that handled the flows experience and customers.

Notes

1. Trafina Privatbank, “Der Basler Johann Jakob Speiser und der Schweizer Franken”, https://www.trafina.ch/aktuell/der-basler-johann-jakob-speiser-und-der-schweizer-franken. ↩
2. HLS, Bernard Degen, “Franken”, http://www.hls-dhs-dss.ch/textes/d/D13671.php. Other accounts date the start of federal minting in Bern to 1853: Wikipedia (de), “Schweizer Münzgeschichte”, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schweizer_M%C3%BCnzgeschichte. Swissmint, the federal mint, dates its own activity from 1855. ↩
3. Trafina Privatbank, “Der Basler Johann Jakob Speiser und der Schweizer Franken”, https://www.trafina.ch/aktuell/der-basler-johann-jakob-speiser-und-der-schweizer-franken. ↩
4. MoneyMuseum Zürich, “Die Zürcher und ihr Geld”, https://www.moneymuseum.com/pdf/archiv/Die%20Zuercher%20und%20ihr%20Geld.pdf. ↩
5. forums9.ch, “Einführung des Frankens im Thurgau 1852; Umtausch der alten Münzen”, https://www.forums9.ch/reportagen/muenzkonversion/index.htm. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of September 2025.