5 ECU Neutrality WWII Airplane Boeing B-17

Switzerland's wartime neutrality put its air defense in an impossible position. Between 1943 and 1944, the Swiss Air Force intercepted and forced down dozens of Allied bombers that had strayed across the border, interning their crews at Wauwilermoos and other camps under conditions that drew sharp postwar criticism. The B-17 was the type most frequently involved — over a hundred American aircraft landed or crashed on Swiss soil, some after taking flak damage over Germany, others simply lost.

The 1995 ECU-denominated issues were part of a broader Swiss collector series; the denomination itself had no legal tender circulation function and was pegged loosely to the European Currency Unit before the euro rendered it moot.