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!
500 Francs
| Issuer | Spar- & Leih-Cassa des Kantons Luzern |
|---|---|
| Year | 1876 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Bradbury Wilkinson and Company, United Kingdom (1856-1990) |
| Designer(s) | 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 | Pink and black intaglio-printed note with a central large denomination inscription "Fünfhundert Franken" in Gothic script, surmounted by the issuer's name and emission date within letterpress text. Four oval vignettes frame the central field: two portrait vignettes at upper left and upper right showing allegorical figures, and two landscape vignettes at lower left and lower right with mountain and lakeside scenes; a reclining infant figure appears in a small central lower vignette, all set within intricate guilloche borders. Denomination numerals "500" appear at each upper corner, with signature lines for Buchhalter, Verwalter, and Cassier printed below the central text. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | 500 500 BANQUE LUCERNE 500 500 |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Spar- & Leih-Cassa des Kantons Luzern was a cantonal savings and loan institution, not a commercial bank, and its issuance of large-denomination paper currency in the 1870s reflects the fragmented Swiss monetary system that persisted until the Swiss National Bank's establishment in 1907. Each canton effectively managed its own credit instruments well into the federal era.
Bradbury Wilkinson's involvement is the sharpest point of interest here. The London firm held contracts across dozens of small European issuers precisely because domestic printers rarely had the intaglio capacity for secure banknote work at this scale. At 500 Francs, this was not everyday spending money — it circulated, if at all, almost exclusively in commercial transactions between institutions.