Shooting thaler
The entire series can be distinguished from the much more varied genre of shooting medals (Schützenmedaillen) by their adherence to the specifications of circulating coinage (with the exception of the three cantonal specimens, the Swiss 5 francs coin).
The term Schützentaler has been revived for commercially produced commemorative coins of thaler size offered on the collector's market since the 1980s.
[7] For the 1851 festival, Geneva, already as a canton of the Swiss Confederation but before the federal mint had become fully operational, issued a 10 francs piece.
The Geneva issue of 1851, with a mintage of only 1,000 pieces, is the rarest of the shooting thalers, and has consequently attained the highest collector's value, selling for upward of CHF 1,500.
[9] The classification of the federally issued shooting thalers as circulating currency was discussed controversially in the late 19th century.
He cites the fact that for three decades, these coins were circulated de facto without intervention on the part of the federal authority.
[3] Although the term Schützentaler is mostly reserved for the Swiss tradition, some German mints in the 19th century have also issued commemorative coins for Schützenfeste.
Examples include the German States of Baden,[11] Bremen,[12] Frankfurt am Main[13] and Hanover,[14] In 1927, the Monetary Union ceased to exist.
After this, there is again a gap of a full decade, interrupted only by a lead prize medal sponsored by the town of Ragaz for the 1838 festival in St. Gallen.
It is unclear whether these were forgeries intended to deceive or if they were openly sold as copies at the time, but in either case, they have no distinguishing marks and are difficult to tell from the originals.
The medals of 1887 to 1901 were minted in full thaler size (or somewhat larger), with a diameter of 45 mm and a silver weight above 38 grams.
The designs of the medals for the 1949 to 1979 festivals abandoned the classicist style of Romantic nationalism prevalent in the 19th to early 20th century thalers, and follow the artistic tastes of their time, tending towards minimalistic or postmodernist styles (a trend already perceptible in the modernized designs of the federal 1939 issue and one of the two variants made for the 1924 festival).
The privately produced 1982 "Schützentaler" was offered in Platinum and Palladium alongside silver and saw "phenomenal" sales in the collectors' market especially in the United States.
[49] Encouraged by this success, CIT Coin Invest went on to produce yearly issues at least nominally associated with selected Swiss shooting events, and in designs loosely reminiscent of the aesthetics of the 19th-century Schützentaler.
The 1990 design for the Winterthur festival once again shows the embracing figures of Helvetia and the city personification, and crossed muskets with a laurel wreath, albeit in modernized, slightly cartoonish art style.
