170 years of the Bern Federal Mint
After modern Switzerland was founded in 1848, it was a few more years until Switzerland had its own mint. This year, the Federal Mint is celebrating its 170th anniversary.
The first Swiss Confederation coins were minted in Paris and Strasbourg. However, as they were plagued with damage to the coin dies and irregular or unattractive mintages, trial mintages were carried out in Bern’s former cantonal mint in Gerberngraben from 1848. To improve the technical capabilities of the mint, the Federal Council pushed the idea of setting up Switzerland’s own mint. The purchase price of CHF 115,000 quoted at the time did not seem too great a sacrifice “in relation to the achieved goal of independence from foreign countries, ensuring independent oversight and flexibility to meet the respective greater or lesser needs of the country.” On 1 September 1855, Bern’s former mint became the first Federal Mint. Nowadays, Swissmint is located in the Kirchenfeld district. The Old Bern Mint later became the Hotel Bellevue-Palace. Until 2019, a restaurant called Zur Münz (the home of the mint) commemorated the minting that used to be carried out on these premises.
1855 shooting thalers
Shortly after the inauguration of the Federal Mint, 3,000 shooting thalers made of 0.900 silver with a face value of CHF 5 were minted to mark the occasion of a shooting festival in Solothurn in 1855. The shooting thalers minted between 1855 and 1885 had the same diameter, alloy composition and weight as the 5-franc coin. They were a souvenir and means of payment at the same time.