Swiss Franc country flag

Swiss Franc

CHF

CHF
Euro country flag

Euro

EUR

Swiss Franc
The Swiss franc, or simply the franc, is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It is also legal tender in the Italian exclave of Campione d'Italia, which is surrounded by Swiss territory. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) issues banknotes and the federal mint Swissmint issues coins. It is also designated through the currency signs Fr. (in German), fr. (in French, Italian, and Romansh), or CHF (in any other language), which stands for Confoederatio Helvetica Franc. This acronym also serves as the ISO 4217 currency code, used by banks and financial institutions. The smaller denomination, a hundredth of a franc, is a Rappen (Rp.) in German, centime (c.) in French, centesimo (ct.) in Italian, and rap (rp.) in Romansh. The official symbols Fr. (in German) and fr. (in the Romance languages) are widely used by businesses and advertisers, including in English. However, according to Art. 1 SR/RS 941.101 of the federal law collection, the internationally official abbreviation – regardless of the national languages – is CHF, which is also to be used in English; respective guides also request that the ISO 4217 code be used. The use of SFr. for Swiss Franc and fr.sv. are outdated. As previously indicated, the Latinate "CH" stands for Confoederatio Helvetica; given the different languages used in Switzerland, Latin is used for language-neutral inscriptions on its coins.
Euro
The euro (symbol: €; currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the 27 member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the euro area or, more commonly, the eurozone. The euro is divided into 100 euro cents. The currency is also used officially by the institutions of the European Union, by four European microstates that are not EU members, the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, as well as unilaterally by Montenegro and Kosovo. Outside Europe, a number of special territories of EU members also use the euro as their currency. The euro is used by 350 million people in Europe and additionally, over 200 million people worldwide use currencies pegged to the euro. It is the second-largest reserve currency as well as the second-most traded currency in the world after the United States dollar. As of December 2019, with more than €1.3 trillion in circulation, the euro has one of the highest combined values of banknotes and coins in circulation in the world. The name euro was officially adopted on 16 December 1995 in Madrid. The euro was introduced to world financial markets as an accounting currency on 1 January 1999, replacing the former European Currency Unit (ECU) at a ratio of 1:1 (US$1.1743 at the time). Physical euro coins and banknotes entered into circulation on 1 January 2002, making it the day-to-day operating currency of its original members, and by March 2002 it had completely replaced the former currencies. Between December 1999 and December 2002, the euro traded below the US dollar, but has since traded near parity with or above the US dollar, peaking at US$1.60 on 18 July 2008 and since then returning near to its original issue rate. On 13 July 2022, the two currencies hit parity for the first time in nearly two decades due in part to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Then, in September 2022, the US dollar again had a face value higher than the euro, at around US$0.95 per euro.