The 10-franc gold Vreneli, featuring the bust of a woman looking to the left, with thick, plaited hair and an edelweiss wreath around her shoulders, was minted for the last time in 1922. It is the little sister of the legendary 20-franc gold Vreneli and was produced between 1911 and 1922 at the Federal Mint in Bern. However, the thin planchets used and the nature of the relief on the obverse meant that the reverse of the 10-franc Vreneli had to be redesigned. The upper part shows the Swiss cross in the middle of a halo, the denomination and the year in the centre of the coin. The lower part depicts branches with alpine rose and gentian blossoms. The mint mark “B” for Bern can be seen at the very bottom. The coin weighs 3.226g with a gold fineness of 900/1000 and has a diameter of 19mm. A total of 2.65 million coins were minted between 1911 and 1922.
By issuing the 50-franc gold coin 100 years later on, Swissmint is commemorating the last minting of the 10-franc gold Vreneli in 1922. The obverse bears the number 100, with both zeros superimposed, in reference to the last minting. Inside the second zero is an enlarged section of the bust of the woman on the original Vreneli, looking to the left. At the bottom of the coin, separated by a vertical line, are the dates 1911 and 1922 for the period during which the 10-franc gold Vreneli was issued. The reverse from the original minting was retained, with two minor adjustments. The face value is now CHF 50 and the year of minting is 2022.
Only hours after the official issue the coin was sold out in the Swissmint’s online shop. It may still be available from individual coin dealers and banks.
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You can find more about the Vreneli, a Swiss icon, in our background articles at Cosmos of Collectibles.
The Vreneli is also a very popular bullion coin.
Because of its popularity it is also popular among counterfeiters. So, learn how to detect counterfeit Vrenelis.
