Cash has become less popular as a means of payment. In 2024, private individuals made only 30 per cent of their daily purchases with banknotes and coins. feits are sent to the federal police. Banknotes unfit for use because they are dirty, ripped or no longer meet the required standards in any other way are discarded. These go directly into the shredder and later end up at the waste incineration plant. Some 30 million banknotes were destroyed in 2024. In turn, the SNB issued 41 million fresh banknotes. “High quality is our hallmark,” says Peter Eltschinger of the SNB’s cash department, who is accompanying us on 5 THEODORA PETER The Swiss National Bank (SNB) in Berne is the beating heart that regulates cash circulation in Switzerland, ensuring that Swiss banks always have enough cash in reserve for their private and business clients. Banknotes and coins worth a total of over 76 billion Swiss francs were in circulation in 2024 – around twice as much as 20 years ago. For the purposes of this article, the SNB gave us a rare glimpse into its heavily guarded national cash vault in Berne, where banknotes and coins arrive in numerous crates every day – delivered by cash handling companies like Loomis that move the currency from A to B, supplying it to and collecting it from banks, shops and authorities around the country. Money is sorted, checked, and replaced where necessary before it re-enters circulation. Last year, the SNB put some 244 million banknotes and 166 million coins back into circulation and withdrew 238 million banknotes and 131 million coins. In the heavily guarded vault To access the cash vault situated at the SNB’s headquarters on Berne’s Bundesplatz you must go through a security check. A lift takes you underground. After passing through a reinforced door, you walk into a labyrinth of winding corridors and staircases. The lighting in the first room that we enter is as bright as day. Equipped with machines, robotic arms, and conveyor belts, this space looks like a small industrial facility – albeit one chock-a-block with banknotes. Fifty-franc notes are being checked today. An employee puts the bundles into a machine, which verifies the authenticity and condition of every note within seconds. Counterthis tour. The SNB’s banknotes are made to last and can withstand repeated folding and washing. No one works alone A machine repacks the banknotes that remain fit for use and are earmarked to return to circulation. Wrapped in plastic, each bundle moves along a conveyor belt and is checked individually by a member of staff before landing in a transport box. If any note has as much as a slight kink, the entire package will go back into the machine to be reprocessed. More than one person is involved in each processing stage. No one works alone. All rooms and workstations have video surveillance. “This also protects our employees,” says Eltschinger. A lift takes us further down. The next stop is the coin processing facility. There is a lot more noise here than in the comparatively quiet banknote room. Twenty-cent pieces are rattling through the sorting machine today. Coins failing the quality test go directly into a separate collection point and will later be returned to Swissmint, the manufacturer. Swissmint, or the federal mint, will make these coins unidentifiable and dispose of the metal. Coins fit for further use are wrapped in paper and repacked in boxes. Each denomination is denoted by a specific colour – in this case red for the 20-cent pieces. Most of the processing steps are automated in this room too. Employees intervene to cut open coin rolls and check coins that the machine is unable to process. An incongruous red neon sign hangs on the wall. “Geld und Wert. Das letzte Tabu,” it says, which translates as “Money and its value – the last taboo”. It is a memento from Expo.02, the Before coins and notes return to circulation, they are sorted and repacked in the SNB’s underground vault in Berne. Pictured here: freshly packed rolls of 20-cent pieces. Photo: SNB Swiss Review / December 2025 / No.5
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