Catalog
10 Franken
| Issuer | Toggenburger Bank, Lichtensteig |
|---|---|
| Year | 1865-1881 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is dominated by a central vignette of a panoramic townscape, likely Lichtensteig, set within an ornate engraved frame beneath the bold gothic-script bank title 'Die Toggenburger Bank'. To the lower left, a vignette of a seated female figure with craft implements, and to the lower right, a second classical female figure; both flanking the central denomination panel reading 'ZEHN FRANKEN'. Circular guilloche rosettes bearing the numeral '10' appear at upper left and right, with handwritten date, series, and three signature lines for Cassier, Präsident, and Direktor across the lower portion. |
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| Obverse lettering | Die Toggenburger Bank in LICHTENSTEIG zahlt gegen diesen CASSENSCHEIN ZEHN FRANKEN LICHTENSTEIG Serie: No Der Cassier: Der Präsident: Der Director: |
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| Comments |
The Toggenburger Bank was one of dozens of Swiss cantonal and private note-issuing banks that operated under the decentralized regime predating the Swiss National Bank's founding in 1907. Lichtensteig is a small market town in the Toggenburg valley of St. Gallen canton — not a financial center by any measure — which makes the bank's note-issuing activity a direct product of Switzerland's unusually permissive pre-federal banking environment, where even modest regional institutions could circulate their own paper.
The long issue window spanning nearly two decades suggests serial reissue rather than a single print run. When the Swiss federal government moved to consolidate note issue in the 1880s, banks like the Toggenburger were wound down or absorbed, and most of their circulating notes were redeemed and pulped.