europe: Switzerland - 100 Francs 2019 Hybrid

Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft
Confédération Suisse
Confederazione Svizzera
Confederaziun Svizra
(Swiss Confederation)

Schweizerische Nationalbank
Banque Nationale Swisse
Banca Nazionvale Svizzerra
Banca Naziunala Svizzera
(Swiss National Bank)
Currency - Swiss Francs (CHF)

This is the last 100 francs note of the ninth series issued on 12.09.2019. The theme for the ninth series is "Many facets of Switzerland". This series first started in 2016. The ninth series comprises of 6 notes - 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 1000 francs. I have all the notes for this series but not the 1000 francs. The 1000 francs is a bit too much given that the Swiss National Bank may demonetised it's currency one day as and when new series are issued at a later date, thus making previous issues worthless eventually, except to collectors. When come to secondary market, high value note is hard to sell. Getting the 1000 francs at face value is already tough, not to mention getting one via a dealer paying face value plus a premium.

The theme for this 100 francs is water. On the front, it depicts two hands clasped together with fresh water, the globe and on the back, showing a wooden irrigation channel near the village of Ayent, the Bisse d'Ayent, in the rock face of Torrent-Croix. Suone is the name given to this centuries-old irrigation canals in the canton of Valais where melt glacial water being transported down the Alps for consumption. As the theme for this 100 francs is water, this note is predominately printed in blue colour.

There is one security feature on this note that I find it quite unique. Perhaps this is not new. If you hold up the note against a strong light, you will see 80 tiny "pin" holes formed in a shape of a cross, just like the white cross on the Swiss flag. You can see this on the polymer strip imbedded on the note. This is in addition to the Swiss Cross (transparent window) printed on the top left hand corner of the note.

All notes are printed with four official languages - German, French, Italian and Romansh. Majority of the people in Switzerland speak German. Only 0.5% of the population speak Romansh. The four languages are printed two on each side on the note. The first two digits of the serial number depicts the year of this note. In this case, it's 2017 (ND2017), even this note was issued in 2019.

As per all previous issues, this 100 francs comes in 3-signature varieties -

Jean Studer / Thomas Jordan
Jean Studer / Fritz Zurbrugg
Jean Studer / Andrea Michaela Maechler

Size : 144mm x 70mm

One Hundred Francs