CHF - Swiss Franc

The franc (ISO 4217: CHF or 756) is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. The Italian exclave Campione d'Italia and the German exclave Bu"singen also use the Swiss franc. Franc banknotes are issued by the central bank of Switzerland, the Swiss National Bank, while coins are issued by the federal mint, Swissmint.

The Swiss franc is the only version of the franc still issued in Europe. Its name in the four official languages of Switzerland is Franken (German), franc (French and Rhaeto-Romanic), and franco (Italian). The smaller denomination, which is worth a hundredth of a franc, is called Rappen (Rp.) in German, centime (c.) in French, centesimo (ct.) in Italian and rap (rp.) in Rhaeto-Romanic. Users of the currency commonly write CHF (the ISO code), though SFr. is still common. SwF has been used in some publications but is not an official abbreviation.

The current franc was introduced in 1850 at par with the French franc. It replaced the different currencies of the Swiss cantons, some of which had been using a franc (divided into 10 batzen and 100 rappen) which was worth 11/2 French francs.

In 1865, France, Belgium, Italy, and Switzerland formed the Latin Monetary Union where they agreed to change their national currencies to a standard of 4.5 grams of silver or 0.290322 grams of gold. Even after the monetary union faded away in the 1920s and officially ended in 1927, the Swiss franc remained on that standard until 1967.

As of November 30, 2006, the Swiss franc was worth US$ 0.826729 or ˆ 0.628625. Since mid-2003, its exchange rate with the Euro has been stable at a value of about 1.55 CHF per Euro, so that the Swiss Franc has risen and fallen in tandem with the Euro against the U.S. dollar and other currencies.

The Swiss franc has historically been considered a safe haven currency with virtually zero inflation and a legal requirement that a minimum 40% is backed by gold reserves. However this link to gold, which dates from the 1920s, was terminated on 1 May 2000 following an amendment to the Swiss Constitution.The Swiss franc has suffered devaluation only once, on 27 September 1936 during the Great Depression, when the currency was devalued by 30% following the devaluations of the British pound, U.S. dollar and French franc.

All banknotes are quadrilingual, displaying all information in the four national languages, with German and Romansh on one side, French and Italian on the other. Furthermore, all banknotes depicting a Germanophone display German and Romansch on the same side as their picture, whereas banknotes depicting a Francophone or an Italophone display French and Italian on the same side as their picture.

The previous series (6th, 1976) designed by Ernst and Ursula Hiestand depicted personalities of the world of science. It has been recalled and replaced and will lose any value on 1 May 2020. As of 2006, a large number of notes from this series has not yet been exchanged, even though it has not been legal tender for more than 5 years; for example, the value of 500 francs banknotes still in circulation represents 167.4 millions Swiss Francs. When the 5th series lost its validity, at the end of April 2000, the banknotes that had not been exchanged represented a total value of 244.3 million Swiss francs; in accordance with Swiss law, this amount was transferred to the Swiss Fund for Emergency Losses in the case of non-insurable natural disasters.

The seventh series was printed, but is kept as a "reserve series", ready to be used if, for example, wide counterfeiting of the current series suddenly happened. For security reasons, the Swiss National Bank has not published any description or picture of this series, apart from very small extracts.

In February 2005, a competition was launched for the design of the 9th series planned to be released around 2010 on the theme Switzerland open to the world. The results were announced in November 2005, but the selected design drew widespread criticisms from the population.

• Swiss dinar is a common name for the old Iraqi currency, but not related to Swiss currency.

• CHF stands for Confoederatio Helvetica franc. Latin is used as the neutral representation of the country because the people of Switzerland speak four national languages.

Unique Characteristics

The CHF has been relatively stable to the Euro since mid-2003 at a value of about 1.55 CHF per Euro. The CHF rises and falls against the U.S. dollar in line with the Euro. Despite the currency trading roaming around the range of 80 to 90 cents, the CHF has little purchasing power. Goods in Switzerland cost about twice as much as they would in the US. The small purchasing power is made due to the CHF being widely used as a reserve currency by entities throughout the world.

Key Economic Factors

Economic Overview: Switzerland has remained a stable market economy with low unemployment, a highly skilled labor force and a larger GDP per capita than other Western European economies. The economic practices of Switzerland's government have conformed to that of the EU's to enhance their international competitiveness. Switzerland has consistently served as a safe haven for international investors as it has kept a certain degree of bank secrecy and has kept up the franc's long-term external value. In addition, unemployment has remained at less than half the EU average