From the monetary chaos of the 19th century to its status today as a global safe haven, this is the story of how the Swiss franc emerged and why it inspires such confidence. In the early 1800s, Switzerland’s monetary system was in disorder. There was no single currency: hundreds of different coins circulated simultaneously, including cantonal, municipal, ecclesiastical and foreign ones. People paid with whatever they had on hand, and calculating prices often became a mathematical puzzle. Back then, the cantons functioned as quasi-sovereign states, each with its own currency, customs system and even its own time zone, which made trade between regions a logistical challenge under constantly changing rules. A currency system in disarray As Swiss economist Ernst Baltensperger notes, the problem was not just the number of currencies but their quality. Some coins contained the promised amount of gold or silver; others did not. Merchants could never be sure how “genuine” the money they ...
