10 Francs Alpine marmot

Swissmint introduced this bimetallic 10-franc circulation coin in 1995 as part of a redesign intended to bring modern security features and a distinctly Swiss natural iconography to the higher-denomination coinage. The alpine marmot — Marmota marmota — had no prior history on Swiss federal coinage, making its selection a deliberate departure from the Vreneli and Helvetia traditions that had dominated for over a century.

The bimetallic construction itself served as the primary anti-counterfeiting measure, at a time when European mints were broadly adopting ring-and-centre formats following the success of Italian 500-lire experiments in the 1980s.