5 Francs

Geneva's 1848 five franc piece was struck in the same year the canton adopted its radical new constitution, which dramatically expanded suffrage and restructured cantonal government following popular pressure tied to the broader revolutionary wave sweeping Europe that spring. The timing was not coincidental — the issue functioned partly as an assertion of cantonal monetary authority at precisely the moment the Swiss Confederation itself was consolidating federal power under the new 1848 federal constitution, which would soon curtail the independent coinage rights the cantons had long exercised.

This is among the final emissions Geneva would strike as a genuinely autonomous monetary actor. Federal coinage law effectively ended cantonal silver issues within a few years.