Twenty Francs 2018 Swiss Army Knife, 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.

In regular circulation, the denomination is served by a banknote. These coins are non-circulating legal tender made for collectors. They are issued in topical series, celebrating various aspects of Swiss heritage or nature.

The edge is usually inscribed with the motto DOMINUS PROVIDEBIT (The Lord will provide - a quote from the Bible, Genesis 22, 8), and thirteen stars representing the original thirteen cantons of the Swiss Federation.

This coin celebrates the world-famous Swiss Army Knife.

Swissmint says about it:
"In the 19th century, our country was one of the poorest states in Europe and high unemployment forced many Swiss to emigrate. The creation of jobs was therefore greeted with open arms. With this in mind, Schwyz-born Karl Elsener (1860 - 1918) founded a cutlery workshop in Ibach in 1884. He came up with the idea of manufacturing soldiers' knives (which had previously been made in Germany) in Switzerland. However, his business was too small to obtain orders from the army. For this reason, in 1891 he founded the Swiss cutlers' association with the aim of manufacturing the soldiers' knives for the army together with other cutlers in Switzerland. The first delivery was made the same year. At the time, the knife pioneer would probably never have dreamed that it would one day become a world-famous company.

The soldier's knife was very robust but also relatively heavy. So Karl Elsener developed a lighter and above all more elegant knife with even more functions. He called this pocket knife model the "Officer's and Sports Knife" and had it legally protected in 1897. However, unlike the soldier's knife, the Officer's Knife did not become official army equipment. This did not affect its success. The "Swiss Army Knife", as the Officer's Knife was called for export, began to conquer the world after the Second World War. Victorinox AG is now run by the fourth generation of the Elsener family."