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 Pattern, copper
| Issuer | Swiss Confederation |
|---|---|
| Year | 1855 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Franc (1850-date) |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| 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 | 1855 |
| Additional information |
This is an essai struck as Switzerland worked through the painful process of establishing a unified federal coinage after 1848. The Confederation had inherited a chaotic patchwork of cantonal currencies, and the Federal Mint in Bern spent years testing compositions, weights, and module sizes before the 5 Franc series stabilized. Copper trials of this denomination were never intended for circulation — silver was always the target metal — making survivors purely the product of official mint experimentation rather than any production intent.
The HMZ and Richter references both confirm extreme rarity for this specific copper striking.