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Swiss banknotes
Swiss banknotes are special. They have been voted some of the world’s most attractive notes and are seen as state of the art in counterfeit protection. Read on to find out what makes the franc notes in your wallet so unique.
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One in three payments in Switzerland is made with cash. Even though digital payment methods are becoming increasingly popular, coins and banknotes remain an important part of payment transactions. Like many people in Switzerland, the – issuer of the banknotes – is sticking with them.
The SNB cites the advantages of cash as follows: ease of use, protection of privacy, control over spending and independence from electronic devices and the power grid. Banknotes with high denominations, such as 1,000-franc notes, also store value – a use that has been on the rise since low interest rates came into play.
It is customary for each of the world’s countries to print its own currency at home. This is no different in Switzerland than in the US or Germany. What’s special about the money printed in Swiss production facilities is that many of the Swiss companies that produce the franc banknotes are also doing good business worldwide. The SNB’s banknotes are highly sophisticated and are regarded as the gold standard for counterfeit protection by other clients.
, a company based in Landquart, produces what it calls “cylinder mold paper” or “banknote substrate.” The material used to make banknotes is more than “paper” and is itself considered one of the security features that is difficult to counterfeit. “” is the product name of the substrate used for the current notes. It is a three-layer combination of paper and plastic. Two thin layers of cotton paper form the front and back of each note. A polymer layer in the middle provides durability. During production, some of the 15 security features are added to the paper, such as the security thread and the Swiss cross.
The company in Chavornay says on its website that it produces the ink for more than half of the world’s banknotes – including the SNB’s francs. SICPA produces thousands of different tones and mixes of ink containing security features that can only be seen under infrared light, for example. Once printed, the plastic-based ink must be so durable that its appearance is not affected by sunlight or a cycle in the washing machine.
Banknote printing machines are a Swiss specialty. According to König & Bauer Banknote Solutions from Lausanne, the company prints 90% of all the world’s banknotes, including franc notes. While at least four printing processes are required to print a standard banknote, as many as eight are used for Swiss francs. This makes them extremely hard to counterfeit.
The SNB commissions Security Printing – a company whose name is readily associated with the book trade and publishing – to print the banknotes. The company has over 500 years of history and the central bank is its largest single shareholder. It not only prints books and newspapers but has also been printing banknotes for a long time, including the SNB’s first banknote back in 1914. Until the 1970s, some franc banknotes were still produced abroad. After that, however, they have only been printed in Switzerland. For a while, Orell Füssli also produced plastic bank cards and credit cards but gave up the business in favor of innovative banknotes. Special functions such as QR codes are intended to make banknotes suitable for digital use, for example.
In addition, the banknotes were designed in Switzerland. Graphic designer Manuela Pfrunder, who now works in Flums but had a studio in Zurich at the time, designed the current banknote series. The notes went into circulation from 2016.
This series was the SNB’s ninth, under the motto “The many facets of Switzerland.” In the meantime, the SNB is preparing a new, tenth series, which will be in circulation in the 2030s. The motifs are intended to reflect “Switzerland and its altitudes.”
The details of what will appear on the notes are unknown at the start of the design process. For each series, the SNB organizes a competition open to all graphic designers who live or work in Switzerland. Around 300 applications were received for the current round, and 12 of them have been selected to present their designs to the public by mid-2025.
Good to know
Every year, the International Bank Note Society selects the most attractive banknotes from among those that were recently issued. In 2016, the new 50-franc note was launched and won the coveted “Banknote of the Year” award. The SNB then released a new 10-franc note – which also won an award in 2017. However, as the list of the winners below shows, other central banks are also putting very attractive, elaborately designed notes into circulation: Mexico (twice), Aruba, the Philippines and, most recently, the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union.
Banknotes are not on their way out. This is down to the SNB’s ambition to work with innovative companies to develop new banknotes that are state of the art in terms of security. The more elaborate the banknote design is, the easier it is to recognize counterfeit copies if they end up in your wallet.
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