100 Francs 1st series

The Schweizerische Nationalbank opened for business in June 1907, and this note belongs to its inaugural issue — the first series produced after the federal government finally wrested unified note-issuing authority away from the patchwork of cantonal and private banks that had dominated Swiss currency for decades. Bradbury, Wilkinson handled the printing in London, a common arrangement for smaller central banks in that period who needed security printing expertise they couldn't yet produce domestically.

Josef von Storck was a prominent Viennese decorative arts figure, which accounts for the Historicist ornamental character of the design — an unusual choice for a founding national issue, and one the SNB quietly moved away from in subsequent series.