Swiss Review / December 2021 / No.6 22 Society JÜRG STEINER “A fool and his money are soon parted” is a proverbwithwhichmany of us can identify. The Swiss – irrespective of wealth – have an intimate, not to say reverential relationship with their hard-earned banknotes and coins. Remember putting away those 5, 10, 20 and 50-centime coins into an empty jam jar when you were young, pouring out the contents once a year to spend on a little something extra? Occasionally, this turns into a lifelong obsession for people who, for example, like to collect a particular coin from every year it was issued. Legal tender since 1879 Lately, Swiss numismatics enthusiasts have been dealing in superlatives. According to the federal mint Swissmint, the ten-centime piece minted in 1879 is the “oldest unaltered coin still in circulation” – a fact authenticated by the publishers of the Guinness Book of World Records no less. The ten-centime coin, which depicts the head of Libertas, the Roman goddess of liberty, has remained unchanged for over 140 years. Even pieces minted in 1879 can still be used as legal tender. Nevertheless, the emotional attachment thatmany Swiss have to the coins and banknotes of their national currency seems almost quaint these days, given that they are losing the habit of paying by cash. Will cash soon be obsolete? In its recent survey on payment methods, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) discovered that a watershed has been reached with regard to payment behaviour. In terms of the transaction value of non-recurring payments, the debit card has replaced cash in Switzerland as the most important payment instrument. Cash is now only the most widely used payment method for amounts up to 20 Swiss francs. Otherwise, the bulk of payments are settled by card. According to the SNB, two factors have accelerated the trend towards cashless payments. Firstly, contactless payment is a technological development that has made paying by card even simpler than handing over cash at the till. Coins falling out of wallets and purses are a thing of the past. Secondly, the Covid-19 pandemic has seenmany businesses actively urging their cusA paradoxical love affair People in Switzerland are paying with cash less and less but stashing away more and more banknotes and coins. Will cash payments one day be a thing of the past? No, says a pressure group campaigning for a popular initiative on the matter. 1 cm World-beating coin: the Swiss 10-centime piece, unchanged since 1879 and still in circulation. Photo: Swissmint
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