Five Centimes (Rappen), Coin Type from Switzerland - detailed information

The Five Centimes coin is currently the smallest circulating denomination of the Swiss Franc, after the One Centime and Two Centimes denominations were demonetised in 2007 and 1978 respectively. Given that Switzerland has four official languages, the sub-unit of the Franc has four different names; it is centime (c.) in French, Rappen (Rp.) in German, centesimo (ct.) in Italian and rap (rp.) in Romansh. Some English-language catalogues call the coin a "5 Rappen" coin, but the English-language publications of the Swiss National Bank and Swissmint prefer the word "5 centimes".

Coins of the 5 centime (Rappen) denomination went through several transformations in their history. Swissmint lists the following developments:

The first version of the coin was designed by Carl Friedrich Voigt of the Munich Mint (then Royal Bavarian Mint). On the obverse it featured the Swiss Coat of Arms (a rendering quite different from that on the One Centime and Two Centimes denominations released at the same time but designed by Alexander Hutter), on two sheaves of wheat. The reverse shows the value (only a numeral, no text) within a wreath of grape leaves and grapes. This original reverse has remained unchanged and is still used on current coins. This version was lighter (1.67 grams) and made of billon (an alloy with a very low quantity of silver), the composition of which varied through the years.

The first version was issued until 1877 and was demonetised on 30th June 1886.

In 1879, the obverse was changed to a design by Karl Schwenzer featuring the effigy of Libertas. The metal was changed to copper-nickel and the coin became slightly heavier (2 grams). This continued until 1980, with the exception of 1918 when the 5 centimes was struck in brass (issue demonetised 1st January 1924) and the years 1932 - 1939 and 1941 when it was pure nickel. All copper-nickel and nickel coins were demonetised on 1st January 1984.

The current version has been issued since 1981 and is made of aluminium bronze.