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William Tell

DB02-0205
DB02-0205DB02-0205
ID Number: DB02-0205 Description: 5 Francs Country or State: Switzerland Year: 1931 Currency: Franc Obverse: The portrait in right profile of a curly-haired herdsman, wearing a hooded shirt, often assimilated to William Tell, is surrounded with the inscripiton "C ...Read more



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ID Number: DB02-0205
Description: 5 Francs
Country or State: Switzerland
Year: 1931
Currency: Franc
Obverse: The portrait in right profile of a curly-haired herdsman, wearing a hooded shirt, often assimilated to William Tell, is surrounded with the inscripiton "CONFOEDERATIO HELVETICA" (Swiss Confederation)
Obverse Legend: CONFOEDERATIO HELVETICA
P, BVRKHARD , INCT
Reverse: Coat of arms of Switzerland on escutcheon with square top and round base; edelweiss (Leontopodium nivale) branch with four flowers in left field; rusty-leaved alpenrose (Rhododendron ferrugineum) branch in right field; value above; date and mint mark below.
Reverse Legend: 5 FR. 1931 B
Engraver: Paul Burkhard
Edge: Type I: ***DOMINUS | PROVIDEBIT | **********
Note: Edge lettering type I starts at 6 o'clock
Orientation: Coin alignment ↑↓
Mint Mark: B (Bern)
Composition: Silver 0.8350 (Ag)
Diameter: 31.45 mm
Thickness: 2.4 mm
Weight: 15.0000 grams (0.4027 oz.)
Mintage: 3,520,000
Catalog Number: KM# 40

William Tell (German: Wilhelm Tell; French: Guillaume Tell; Italian: Guglielmo Tell; Romansh: Guglielm Tell) is a folk hero of Switzerland. According to the legend, Tell was an expert marksman with the crossbow who assassinated Albrecht Gessler, a tyrannical reeve of the Austrian dukes of the House of Habsburg positioned in Altdorf, in the canton of Uri. Tell's defiance and tyrannicide encouraged the population to open rebellion and a pact against the foreign rulers with neighbouring Schwyz and Unterwalden, marking the foundation of the Swiss Confederacy.

Set in the early 14th century (traditional date 1307, during the rule of Albert of Habsburg), the first written records of the legend date to the latter part of the 15th century, when the Swiss Confederacy was gaining military and political influence. Tell is a central figure in Swiss national historiography, along with Arnold von Winkelried the hero of Sempach (1386). He was important as a symbol during the formative stage of modern Switzerland in the 19th century, known as the period of Restoration and Regeneration, as well as in the wider history of 18th- to 19th-century Europe as a symbol of resistance against aristocratic rule, especially in the Revolutions of 1848 against the House of Habsburg which still ruled Austria five hundred years later.