Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
5 Francs Gotthard Railway
| Issuer | Swiss Mint (Swissmint) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1982 |
| Type | Non-circulating coin |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | An abstract modernist composition by the artist Luginbühl depicting an assemblage of railway engineering motifs, including tunnel arch masonry, locomotive wheels, rails, pistons, and radiating lines evoking light or steam, all rendered in bold low-relief graphic style. The word 'GOTHARD US' is arranged vertically along the right side of the field in large capital letters, with the designer's name 'LUGINBÜHL' inscribed in small capitals at lower right. The commemorative date span '1882–1982' appears vertically along the left margin, marking the centenary of the Saint-Gotthard Railway. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Issued to mark the centenary of the Gotthard Railway's opening in 1882, this commemorative was struck while the far more ambitious Gotthard Base Tunnel project was still decades from approval — funding battles for that tunnel would consume Swiss federal politics well into the 1990s. The original Gotthard line, engineered by Louis Favre under a contract that essentially bet his company's solvency on the completion date, killed over 200 workers during its decade-long construction through the Alps.
Favre himself died of a stroke in the tunnel in 1879, three years before the opening his contract required.