■ CHF · since 1870
What 100 units bought in Swiss francs
Type a currency. Each line shows how many CHF 100 units of it were worth at year-end. Log scale, so a fall from 100 to 10 looks the same as from 10 to 1. The red line is the franc itself.
Data: Jordà-Schularick-Taylor Macrohistory Database R6 (exchange rates vs USD, 1870–2020, cross-calculated to CHF); 2021–2026: FRED / Federal Reserve H.10 (last trading day of the year; 2026 = 23 Oct). Gaps mean no data. General information, not investment advice.
The franc: 175 years of staying strong
The Swiss franc began with the first Federal Coinage Act of 7 May 1850, after the 1848 Constitution gave the new federal state sole right to issue money. It replaced around 860 different coins from cantons, cities and abbeys. (Wikipedia, Swiss franc)
In 1865 Switzerland, France, Belgium and Italy formed the Latin Monetary Union, tying their currencies to 4.5 g of fine silver or 0.290322 g of gold. That put the dollar at CHF 5.18. The union faded during the First World War and officially ended in 1927. The franc kept its gold parity anyway. (Latin Monetary Union)
Across two world wars, the franc held its value while the German mark collapsed: by the end of 1923, 100 paper marks were worth about a billionth of a franc. The franc's only formal devaluation came on 27 September 1936. After Britain, the United States and France had devalued, Switzerland cut the gold content by about 30%, setting USD 1 = CHF 4.37. (1936 devaluation; World Gold Council)
Under the Bretton Woods system after 1945, the franc stayed fixed at roughly 4.30 per dollar. It was revalued in 1971, and on 23 January 1973 the SNB stopped buying dollars and let the franc float. In the five years that followed, the dollar fell from CHF 3.77 (end-1972) to CHF 1.62 (end-1978). On 1 October 1978 the SNB set its first exchange-rate target, keeping 100 Deutsche Mark "clearly above" CHF 80. (SNB chronicle; SNB annual report 1978; data: JST)
The euro arrived in 1999. During the euro crisis the SNB set a minimum rate of CHF 1.20 per euro on 6 September 2011. It dropped that floor on 15 January 2015, and the franc rose as much as 30% within minutes. (SNB press release 2011; SNB press release 2015; BBC) Gold backing was removed from the law on 1 May 2000.
Today: on 23 October 2026, one US dollar bought CHF 0.82 and one euro about CHF 0.92 (FRED DEXSZUS, DEXUSEU). That compares with CHF 4.50 per dollar in 1870. The Deutsche Mark, French franc, lira and guilder have all disappeared. The franc is still here.
General information only, not investment advice. · Nur allgemeine Informationen, keine Anlageberatung. · Informations générales uniquement, pas un conseil en investissement. · Solo informazioni generali, non una consulenza d’investimento.
