Twenty Francs 1871 Pattern by Voigt, Coin from Switzerland - detailed information

The Twenty Francs coin is a denomination of the Swiss Franc. Given that Switzerland has four official languages, the Franc has three different names: Franken in German, franc in French and Romansh, and franco in Italian. The denomination is thus shown with a language-neutral abbreviation on the reverse: 20 FR.

Initially when federal Swiss coinage was introduced in 1850, all "francs" (from five francs down to a half franc) were full-bodied silver, while the centimes were either billon (low-grade silver) or base metal. In 1883, the first 20 francs gold coin was introduced, with a design like the 5 francs coin at the time.

Twelve years earlier though, this pattern was struck - with a design compatible with the small denominations of the time. It was not accepted though, and later a different design was selected for circulation.