Cha-Ching

I’ve noticed another sign of my integration into Swiss culture. I call it “money math.” To explain what I mean, first you have to understand the smallest denominations of Swiss currency. Joe covered Swiss Franc bills in a previous series, but he stopped before he got to the most common form of money that we deal with every day — the coins.

In Switzerland, the smallest paper currency is 10 Francs. So, the coins, from largest to smallest are: 5 Francs, 2 Francs, 1 Franc, 50 cents, 20 cents, 10 cents, and 5 cents. (“Cents” are actually called “Rappen” here, but I don’t want to confuse the issue.) This is so completely different than the breakdown of coins in the US. For starters, you will notice there is no penny. The 1-cent coin was taken out of circulation in 2006. (There was also a 2-cent coin that was taken out of circulation in 1974.) You can still come across these coins occasionally. They are actually considered to be good luck. But, officially, there is nothing smaller than 5-cents, so all prices end in 5s or usually 10s. There are no prices ending in $.99. Imagine that!

Secondly, the value of coins is so much greater. A 5 Franc coin is worth $5.44 today. A small collection of coins in my purse could easily be worth over $20. Which leads me back to money math. When you grow up counting quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies, it is really hard to switch gears. For example, if something costs 22.75 in the US, that would be a $20 bill, two $1 bills, and 3 quarters. In Switzerland, it’s a 20 CHF bill, a 2 CHF coin, a 50-cent coin, a 20-cent coin, and a 5-cent coin.

When we first got here, my brain just couldn’t do the math fast enough at the checkout counter, especially since I wasn’t familiar enough with the coins to know what each one was worth without flipping them around to look at the numbers. Plus, I was trying to just understand what the clerk was asking me in Swiss German. (Her: “Do you have a store savings card?” Me: “What?” Her: “Would you like your frozen items in a plastic bag?” Me: “What?” Her: “That will be 87.90 please.”) At this point, I would just look at the display screen to decipher the number she had just said, hand her whatever bill I had that was bigger, accept whatever change she gave me and get out of there as quickly as I could. This resulted in an extremely large collection of coins in my purse, until finally I decided I had to start using them.

It was a long and slow process. But the other day I realized that I hardly ever say “What?” at checkout counters anymore, and I can count out my change like a pro. In fact, it was harder for me to think about the US breakdown in my earlier example than the Swiss breakdown! I’ve grown to really like the larger coins here. In fact, when we come back to the US, I think I might do my part to help the US economy by using all those $1 coins that the US made that are sitting in storage because no one wants to use them. But, that’s a different issue.

October 12, 2011October 12, 2011

Swiss Banknote Series: 1000 Franc Note

Jacob Burckhardt (1818-1897)

From the SNB website:

Jacob Burckhardt decisively shaped our understanding of the development of our modern culture. He is best known for his scientifically sound and aesthetically appreciative studies of the Italian Renaissance. But Burckhardt was also a persistent and far-sighted critic of the state’s aspiration for power. Today Burckhardt is admired as a brilliant historian, seminal art historian and prophetic critic of his age. His writings in historiography are literary accomplishments as well as pioneering works that helped to establish art history as a modern academic discipline.

Today the banknote bearing his likeness will get you a trip up and down from Grindelwald to the Jungfraujoch for two adults, three times.

October 5, 2011October 5, 2011

Swiss Banknote Series: 200 Franc Note

Charles Ferdinand Ramuz (1878-1947)

Information from Wikipedia:

Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz (September 24, 1878 – May 23, 1947) was a French-speaking Swiss writer.

He was born in Lausanne in the canton of Vaud and educated at the University of Lausanne. He taught briefly in nearby Aubonne, and then in Weimar, Germany. In 1903, he left for Paris and remained there until World War I, with frequent trips home to Switzerland. In 1903, he published Le petit village, a collection of poems.

In 1914, he returned to Switzerland, where he lived a retired life devoted to his writing.

He wrote the libretto for Igor Stravinsky’s Histoire du soldat.

He died in Pully, near Lausanne in the year 1947.

Today the note bearing his likeness will get a family of 5 (including three kids under the age of 8 and two adults with Half-Fare cards) from Füssen, Germany to Bern Switzerland on the excellent SBB rail system (with a little left over for snacks on the train).

September 28, 2011September 28, 2011

Swiss Banknote Series: 100 Franc Note

Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966)

Alberto Giacometti is a Swiss sculpter, painter, draughtsman, and printmaker born in the Graubünden region of Switzerland, near the Italian border in 1901. His father was an impressionist painter.

He began his arts studies in the School of Fine Arts in Geneva, but subsequently moved to France to study under Antoine Bourdelle.

He produced a number sculptures of the human form, and states he purposefully tried to sculpt the human figure not in its natural form but rather as the shadow that it casts. An example of this can be seen in the sculpture Woman of Venice (II), seen on the left.

He died in 1966 in Chur, Switzerland, of pericarditis and is buried in his home in Graubünden.

Today, the bill bearing his name will buy a mid-level mobile phone (not a smartphone) at Swisscom.

September 21, 2011September 20, 2011

Swiss Banknote Series: 50 Franc Note

Sophie Täuber-Arp (1889-1943)

The first woman in our series, Sophie Täuber-Arp is a female artist born in Davos, Switzerland in 1889. She married the Dada artist Jean Arp in 1922. She studied art in Munich and France, as well as in St. Gallen, Switzerland.

Her art is highly geometric in nature with influences of Cubism. She was skilled in textile techniques, sculpture, paint, and dance. Samples of her artwork can be viewed online through the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

She died in Zurich in 1943 when a gas stove in her home malfunctioned while she was sleeping.

Today, the Swiss bill carrying her image will buy you a Skross World Adapter PRO+ at melectronics. It is, quite honestly, the best travel adapter Swiss Francs can buy. I own two of them (and it only cost me “a pair of Sophie’s” as they say in Switzerland).

September 14, 2011September 11, 2011

Swiss Banknote Series: 20 Franc Note

Arthur Honegger (1892 – 1955)

Born in 1892 in Le Havre, France to a Swiss family, Arthur Honegger would become a celebrated composer with significant Swiss connections. He studied music in Paris and Zurich. Among his many compositions is one entitled “Pacific 231” a symphony that attempts to recreate the sounds of a steam locomotive that goes by the same name.

He lived in Paris for most of his life, and died of a heart attack after a protracted illness in 1955. His last composition was a Christmas cantata. Below is a YouTube video featuring some of his music.

Nowadays, 20 Francs will buy you a case of Feldschlossen Bier at Coop.

September 7, 2011September 5, 2011

Swiss Banknote Series: 10 Franc Note

Charles Edouard Jeanneret (1887-1965)

Known as Le Corbusier (a pseudonym), Jeanneret was born in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland (in Canton Neuchâtel). Though he become a French citizen later in life, he was honored by the Swiss National Bank for being a well-known architect and pioneer of modern architecture. He was particularly interested in using architecture to provide better living conditions for people in crowded cities.

His most well-known project was the planning and implementation of the Indian city of Chandigarh. He was commissioned by the Indian government to develop the city as a new capital of the Indian state of Punjab. Of note, he also designed the stadium that was to become Saddam Hussein Stadium in Baghdad. He also designed a number of private homes, including one called “Villa Schwob” in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.

He died at the age of 77 while swimming in the Mediterranean sea near Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France.

Today, the banknote bearing his image will buy you two coffees, and two gipfeli at Migros Take-Away.

September 5, 2011

Swiss Banknote Series: Introduction

It feels like almost everyday I end up going to an ATM machine to withdraw my hard-earned American Dollars as Swiss Francs. We’ve mentioned before on this blog how expensive things can be here, but it is more than just the expense that makes me look at Switzerland’s money in a different light. Certainly Switzerland is a world financial powerhouse and daily updates from the newspapers detail the complex policy-making issues within the Swiss National Bank.

But living here has given me the opportunity to really examine the issued notes that make up the money. It’s not something we usually think about in America, but maybe that’s because I know who George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Benjamin Franklin are (not to mention Sacajawea), but who are the people on the Swiss Currency, and what did they do to get immortalized like this?

Part of this interest has been prompted by the recently publicized Swiss Franc New Banknote Project. In 2012 the Swiss National Bank will start printing new currency whose design was the result of a contest. So for a few posts over the next several weeks, I was going to look at who was on each Swiss Franc Banknote (10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 1000 – never seen that one), and find out a little about them. And if I’m feeling up to it, I’ll throw in a bonus post about the coins if you’re lucky.