- Description
- Specifications
| ID Number: | DB02-0239 |
| Description: | ½ Franc |
| Country or State: | Switzerland |
| Year: | 1993 |
| Currency: | Franc |
| Obverse: | Helvetia (the female personification of Switzerland), standing, facing left, wearing a toga, holding a spear in her right hand, and leaning on a shield with the Swiss coat of arms. 22 stars around, representing the Swiss cantons. In 1983, a 23rd star was added for the Canton of Jura, which was founded in 1979 |
| Obverse Legend: | HELVETIA A. BOVY INCT |
| Reverse: | The denomination above the date within a wreath formed of two branches tied in a ribbon at 6 o'clock: on the left, a pedunculate oak (Quercus robur) branch with acorns; and on the right, an alpine rose (Rhododendron ferrugineum) branch with flowers. If present, the mint mark is below the wreath |
| Reverse Legend: | ½ Fr., 1993, B |
| Designer: | Antoine Bovy, Albert Walch |
| Edge: | Reeded |
| Orientation: | Medal alignment ↑↑ |
| Mint Mark: | B (Bern) |
| Composition: | Copper-Nickel |
| Diameter: | 18.2 mm |
| Thickness: | 1.25 mm |
| Weight: | 2.2000 grams |
| Mintage: | 13,016,400 |
| Catalog Number: | KM# 23a.3, Schön# 57 |
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Helvetia is the female national personification of Switzerland, officially Confoederatio Helvetica, the Swiss Confederation. The allegory is typically pictured in a flowing gown, with a spear and a shield emblazoned with the Swiss flag, and commonly with braided hair, commonly with a wreath as a symbol of confederation. The name is a derivation of the ethnonym Helvetii, the name of the Gaulish tribe inhabiting the Swiss Plateau before the Roman conquest. The fashion of depicting the Swiss Confederacy in terms of female allegories arises in the 17th century. This replaces an earlier convention, popular in the 1580s, of representing Switzerland as a bull (Schweizer Stier). Identification of the Swiss as "Helvetians" (Hélvetiens) becomes common in the 18th century, particularly in the French language, as in François-Joseph-Nicolas d'Alt de Tieffenthal's very patriotic Histoire des Hélvetiens (1749–53) followed by Alexander Ludwig von Wattenwyl's Histoire de la Confédération hélvetique (1754). Helvetia appears in patriotic and political artwork in the context of the construction of a national history and identity in the early 19th century, after the disintegration of the Napoleonic Helvetic Republic, and she appears on official federal coins and stamps from the foundation of Switzerland as a federal state in 1848. |