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 4th series, reserve banknote
| Issuer | Swiss National Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1949 |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Hohmann |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Red-brown intaglio note with an intricate guilloche underprint in the central field. A finely engraved oval portrait vignette of a young woman's head and shoulders occupies the right side, set within an ornate cartouche. The left panel carries an elaborate geometric guilloche medallion incorporating the Swiss cross, with the trilingual bank title, denomination in three languages, date, and signature lines for the President of the Bank Council, the Chief Cashier, and a member of the Directorate arranged across the centre. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | 500 500 SCHWEIZERISCHE NATIONALBANK BANCA NAZIONALE SVIZZERA BANCA NAZIONALE SVIZZERA BANQUE NATIONALE SUISSE 500 500 ART. INSTITUT ORELL FÜSSLI AG ZÜRICH |
| 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 |
Hans Erni was an unconventional choice for Swiss banknote design — a politically leftist artist best known for large-scale murals and Olympic posters, not the conservative allegories typical of central bank commissions. His involvement in this fourth series reflects a deliberate postwar push by the SNB toward modernist Swiss graphic identity, though the series itself was held in reserve rather than released into general circulation, functioning as a contingency issue against wartime disruption that had already passed.
Orell Füssli's continuous involvement in Swiss security printing stretches back centuries, and by 1949 the firm had refined intaglio production to a level that made their reserve stock essentially indistinguishable in tactile quality from circulating issues.