Life cycle of a banknote

At the heart of every Swiss banknote series are a set of requirements: the notes must not only meet high security standards and be easy to use, but they must also satisfy aesthetic criteria. These requirements are the bedrock on which any new banknote series is developed (Development).

Once the development phase has been completed, the life cycle of a new banknote begins: from the production of the paper and the ink through to the production of the banknote; from the quality control of the banknote upon its arrival at the SNB through to its public issuance; and from the return (Issuance and return) and sorting of banknotes through to their destruction (Sorting and destruction). The final stage in the life cycle sees the banknote being shredded and consigned to the waste incinerator.

Each banknote thus generates financial costs and has an impact on the environment.

Your settings

Required: These cookies (e.g. for storing your IP address) cannot be rejected as they are necessary to ensure the operation of the website. These data are not evaluated further.
Analytics: If you consent to this category, data such as IP address, location, device information, browser version and site visitor behaviour will be collected. These data are evaluated for the SNB's internal purposes and are kept for two years.
Third-party: If you consent to this category, third-party services (used, for example, to add social multimedia content to the SNB's website) will be activated which collect personal data, process these data, disclose them abroad - worldwide - and place cookies. The relevant data protection regulations are linked in the 'Privacy statement for the website of the Swiss National Bank'.

Choose your preferred settings:

This website uses cookies, analytics tools and other technologies to provide requested features, content and services, to personalise the content shown, to provide links to social media, and to analyse the use of the website in anonymised form for the purposes of improving usability. Personal data are also disclosed abroad - worldwide - to video service providers and the analytics tools of these providers are used. More information is available under 'Manage settings'.