20090402

Ten francs, reverse side


I mentioned in yesterday's post that the reverse side of the note has the German and Rumantsch labels. The impressions of the text on the front can also be seen in this photo. Two of the motifs here are the Hall of Justice at Chandigarh in India and a depiction of Corbusier's Modulor scale of measure which is based on the Fibonacci series. Here are a couple of old posts mentioning the Fibonacci series: 20070310 Too pretty to eat and 20070201 Fibonacci sequence at the Zürich Hauptbahnhof).

Do you see the creases that divide the note into quarters? Many Swiss (mostly female, now that I think about it) fold their notes in this fashion and stuff them into their Portmonnaies. Now I've started to do the same... crikey!

This series of banknotes is the eighth in Swiss history and it started in 1995. A new series is in the works. A competition was held in 2005 and the outcome was rather controversial. The first place went to a design that was widely disliked by the masses. The upshot is that the design of the second place winner has been selected as the one with which to go forward. Apparently there will be additional changes to the initial designs but you can get an idea of them here: Swiss National Bank Competition Results.

20090402 Nikon Coolpix 990

4 comments:

Conchscooter said...

I don't mean to be rude (really) but the results of the competition highlight the weakness of a nation lacking a unifying culture. In the US we are going in all directions at once but at least Lincoln, Franklin etc.. as boring as they may, be represent a common history.And as peculiar as the new peach colored greenbacks may be they are as nothing compared to a bank note with a photo of people hugging each other! whatever next? A Swiss colonoscopy? Nah. just Da Vinci's man with all the arteries and veins highlighted....

Baron's Life said...

Had to see it

A Lady's Life said...

Well, life is change. One day our curency will have a King on it instead of a Queen or maybe not.
All I care about is that it is real money and not forgery lol
A bit of history is nice. Memories of good things are nice.
Life has enough of the other stuff.
Thanks

Karen said...

I like the european money.. much more colorful than our boring greenbacks.. I spend more when I'm there, too, because it's like play money to me. ;=]