Switzerland’s Swissmint, the mountainous Central European country’s national mint, has been awarded two numismatic world records.
Guinness World Records recently recognized the mint’s 2020 quarter-franc gold coin as the world’s smallest commemorative coin and the 10-centime coin as the oldest unaltered coin still in circulation.
On the latter coin, apart from the year-date, the obverse and reverse have remained the same since 1879, 26 years after the denomination was first issued along with the first official Swiss coins.
Switzerland’s 2020 quarter-franc commemorative gold coin has been recognized as the world’s smallest commemorative issue, measuring just 2.96 millimetres in diameter.
The former coin – a commemorative gold issue with just 999 struck – has a diameter of 2.96 millimetres, roughly the size of a peppercorn. It weighs only 0.063 grams.
Canada’s current 10-cent circulation coin weighs 1.75 grams – nearly 28 times more than its Swiss counterpart – with an 18.03-millimetre diameter.