1 Franc - State Loan Bank reserve banknote

Switzerland mobilized financially at the outbreak of World War One with unusual speed, and the Darlehenskasse notes were central to that response. The Federal Loan Bank was created specifically as a wartime credit institution, and its small-denomination notes were rushed into circulation to relieve a severe shortage of coin — hoarding had stripped the country of silver and gold within weeks of the July 1914 crisis. The 1 Franc sat at the bottom of the series, used for everyday transactions in a country that had never truly embraced fiduciary paper at that scale.

Orell Füssli had been printing Swiss security documents for decades, and the choice was predictable. The 1915 date marks the second year of sustained issue — demand for small notes had not eased by then, and coin remained scarce throughout the conflict. These notes were officially demonetized and withdrawn after the war, which gives surviving examples a clear expiry point in the historical record.