Swiss franc : Ask Biography

Currency

Local name

Schweizer Franken
franc suisse
franco svizzero
franc svizzer

ISO 4217 Code

CHF

Official user

Switzerland Switzerland
Liechtenstein Liechtenstein
Campione d'Italia (Italy)

Unofficial user

Büsingen am Hochrhein (Germany)

Inflation

0.7% (2010)

Subunit

1/100

Rappen
centime
centesimo
rap

Symbol

CHF, SFr. (old)

Coins and Banknotes

Central bank

Swiss National Bank

Printer

Orell Füssli Arts Graphiques SA (Zürich)

Mint

Swissmint

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The franc (sign: Fr. or SFr.; German: Franken, French and Romansh: franc, Italian: franco; code: CHF) is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein; it is also legal tender in the Italian exclave Campione d'Italia. Although not formally legal tender in the German exclave Büsingen (the sole legal currency is the euro), it is in wide daily use there. The Swiss National Bank issues banknotes and the federal Swissmint issues coins.

The Swiss franc is the only version of the franc still issued in Europe. The smaller denomination, a hundredth of a franc, is a Rappen (Rp.) in German, centime (c.) in French, centesimo (ct.) in Italian, and rap (rp.) in Romansh. The ISO code of the currency used by banks and financial institutions is CHF, although "Fr." is used by most businesses and advertisers; some use SFr.; the Latinate "CH" stands for Confoederatio Helvetica.

Given the quadrilingual populace, Latin is used for language-neutral inscriptions on the coins.