1969 Switzerland Founding HERO WILLIAM TELL 5 Francs European Silver Coin i96105

Description

Item:
i96105
Authentic Coin of:
Switzerland
1969 B
Silver 5 Francs Coin 31.45mm (15.04 grams) .835 Silver (0.4001 oz. ASW)
Reference: KM #40 | Designer: Paul Burkhard | Mint: Bern
CONFEDERATIO HELVETICA, Veiled draped bust of William Tell right.
Coat of arms of Switzerland flanked by sprigs; 5 FR above; 1966 B below.
Edge lettering:
DOMINVS PROVIDEBIT (three stars) (ten stars)
You are bidding on the exact item pictured,  provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of  Authenticity.
William Tell
(in the four languages of Switzerland:
German
:
Wilhelm Tell
;
French
:
Guillaume Tell
;
Italian
:
Guglielmo Tell
;
Romansh
:
Guglielm Tell
) is a
folk hero
of
Switzerland
. His legend is recorded in a late  15th-century
Swiss illustrated chronicles
.
It is set in the time of the original foundation of the
Old Swiss Confederacy
in the early 14th  century. According to the legend, Tell—an expert marksman with the
crossbow
—assassinated
Gessler
, a tyrannical
reeve
of
Habsburg Austria
positioned in
Altdorf
,
Uri
.
Along with
Arnold von Winkelried
, Tell is a central figure  in
Swiss patriotism
as it was constructed during  the
Restoration
of the Confederacy after the
Napoleonic era
.
There are several accounts of the Tell legend. The earliest sources give an  account of the
apple-shot
, Tell's escape and the ensuing  rebellion. The assassination of Gessler is not mentioned in the
Tellenlied
, but is already present in the
White Book of Sarnen
account.
The legend as told by
Tschudi
(ca. 1570) goes as follows: William  Tell, who originally came from
Bürglen
, was known as a strong man, mountain  climber, and an expert shot with the
crossbow
. In his time, the
Habsburg
emperors of Austria were seeking to  dominate Uri. Albrecht (or Hermann)
Gessler
, the newly appointed Austrian
Vogt
of
Altdorf
, raised a pole in the village's central  square, hung his hat on top of it, and demanded that all the townsfolk bow  before the hat.
On 18 November 1307, Tell visited Altdorf with his young son and passed by  the hat, publicly refusing to bow to it, and so was arrested. Gessler—intrigued  by Tell's famed marksmanship, yet resentful of his defiance—devised a cruel  punishment: Tell and his son would be executed, but he could redeem his life by  shooting an apple off the head of his son, Walter, in a single attempt. Tell  split the apple with a
bolt
from his crossbow.
But Gessler noticed that Tell had removed two crossbow bolts from his quiver,  not one. Before releasing Tell, he asked why. Tell replied that if he had killed  his son, he would have used the second bolt on Gessler himself. Gessler was  angered, and had Tell bound.
Tell was brought to Gessler's ship to be taken to his castle at
Küssnacht
to spend his newly won life in a  dungeon. But, as a storm broke on
Lake Lucerne
, the soldiers were afraid that  their boat would founder, and unbound Tell to steer with all his famed strength.  Tell made use of the opportunity to escape, leaping from the boat at the rocky  site now known as the
Tellsplatte
("Tell's slab") and memorialized by the
Tellskapelle
.
Tell ran cross-country to Küssnacht. As Gessler arrived, Tell assassinated  him with the second crossbow bolt along a stretch of the road cut through the  rock between Immensee and Küssnacht, now known as the
Hohle Gasse
. Tell's  blow for liberty sparked a rebellion, in which he played a leading part. That  fed the impetus for the nascent
Swiss Confederation
.
Tell fought again against Austria in the 1315
Battle of Morgarten
. Tschudi also has an  account of Tell's death in 1354, according to which he was killed trying to save  a child from drowning in the
Schächenbach
river in Uri.
Switzerland
,  officially the
Swiss Confederation
(
Latin
:
Confoederatio Helvetica
, hence its abbreviation
CH
), is a
federal
parliamentary republic
consisting of
26 cantons
, with
Bern
as the seat of the federal authorities, the so-called
Bundesstadt
("federal city"). The country is situated in
Western
and
Central Europe
, where it is bordered by
Italy
to the south,
France
to the west,
Germany
to the north, and
Austria
and
Liechtenstein
to the east. Switzerland is a
landlocked country
geographically divided  between the
Alps
, the
Swiss Plateau
and the
Jura
, spanning an area of 41,285 km
2
(15,940 sq mi). While the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, the  Swiss population of approximately 8 million people is concentrated mostly on the  Plateau, where the largest cities are to be found. Among them are the two
global cities
and economic centres of
Zürich
and
Geneva
.
The establishment of the Swiss Confederation is traditionally dated to 1  August 1291, which is celebrated annually as
Swiss National Day
. It has a long history of
armed neutrality
—it has not been in a state of  war internationally since 1815—and did not join the
United Nations
until 2002. It pursues, however,  an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes  around the world. Switzerland is also the birthplace of the
Red Cross
and home to numerous international  organizations, including the
second largest UN office
. On the European  level, it is a founding member of the
European Free Trade Association
and is part of  the
Schengen Area
– although it is notably not a  member of the
European Union
, nor the
European Economic Area
. Switzerland comprises  four main linguistic and cultural regions: German, French, Italian and the
Romansh
-speaking valleys. Therefore, the
Swiss
, although predominantly German-speaking,  do not form a
nation
in the sense of a common ethnic or  linguistic identity; rather, the strong sense of identity and community is  founded on a common historical background, shared values such as
federalism
and
direct democracy
, and
Alpine
symbolism.
Switzerland has the highest nominal
wealth
per adult (financial and non-financial  assets) in the world according to
Credit Suisse
and
eighth-highest
per capita
gross domestic product
on the
IMF
list. However, Switzerland is also the most  expensive country in the world to live in, as measured by the price level index.
Swiss citizens have the
second-highest
life expectancy
in the world on the
UN
DESA list. Switzerland is tied with the
Netherlands
for the top rank on the
Bribe Payers Index
indicating very low levels  of business corruption. Moreover, for the last five years the country has been  ranked first in economic and tourist competitiveness according to the
Global Competitiveness Report
and the
Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report
respectively, both developed by the
World Economic Forum
. Zürich and Geneva have  each been ranked among the top cities with the highest quality of life in the  world, with the former coming second globally according to
Mercer
. However, Mercer also rates those two  cities as the fifth- and sixth- most expensive cities in the world to live in.
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