The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 52, December 11, 2005, Article 17

SWISS IN UPROAR OVER NOTE DESIGNS

The proposed new paper money designs for Switzerland
we discussed recently are drawing criticism from the
public.  According to a report this week by Bloomberg
News, "Switzerland, a global financial center, is in an
uproar that the central bank may put images of embryos
and blood cells on the country's currency.

The designs are "horrible, horrible, horrible," Verena
Graf, a retired bank archivist waiting for a white-and-blue
tram at Zurich's Paradeplatz financial sector, said on
Dec. 2. "I would rather keep the old ones with the
people on them."

The banknotes, designed by Zurich artist Manuel Krebs,
35, last month won a central bank competition to
replace the current edition, which features motifs
of famous Swiss artists such as Alberto Giacometti.
The central bank sought new ideas to create an "open"
image for a country whose two biggest banks alone manage
about $3.3 trillion. The Neue Zuercher Zeitung newspaper,
required reading for any Swiss banker, on Nov. 27 said
the notes lack a sense of the "eroticism of money."

"The central bank will decide on a final design for
the banknotes in the spring, based on technical criteria
and the ease with which new security features can be
incorporated. Production of the new notes may start as
early as 2008."

"In theory, the notes should be Swiss, but the problem
is that if there aren't people on them, what are we
going to put on there -- mountains and cheese?" said
Thomas Bruehwiler, a Zurich-based computer programmer.

Full Story

[Everyone is a critic when it comes to new coin and
currency designs.  It is interesting to read of a banker
talking about "the eroticism of money" - would they find
mountains and cheese more desirable as images? -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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