1898 Neuchatel
Actual 45 mm size by Fritz Landry, Neuchatel
Obverse.
Five shooters in various stances firing their rounds, at the gallery of the great shooting competition.
One of them dressed in a long overcoat raises his hat in euphoric jubilation, certain that he had struck the bulls-eye of his target. Another very distinguished looking senior participant earnestly sizes up his mark in the distance and readies his trusty rifle in preparation for his next shot.
A sharp shooter in military attire surveys his rifle and cocks its chamber for yet another go, and two other participants in fierce concentration, keenly calibrating their aims at their own respective marks.
Across the horizon, the inspiring view presented to all, the proud venue for the grand shooting festival. Further on, in the distance yonder stands the extensive Chasseral Ouest. As the highest summit in Neuchâtel, it bears witness to all the oft repeated fables and legendary events of these historic lands.
Of special mention, the shooting festival coincides with the 50thyear anniversary of the canton’s independence, when valiant kinsmen of the canton from all backgrounds, guilds and professions, drove away the royalists government and established the first free republic of Neuchâtel.
Inscription.
PATRIE – Homeland
Reverse.
The glorious heraldic eagle of the capital town of canton Neuchâtel, perched upon the flora branch of laurels. And in the background, a pair standards displaying the emblem of the confederate Cross, signifying the unity of the cantons, and their virtues of independence and free civil liberties.
The venerable Collegiate Church of Neuchâtel towers from behind a scenery of traditional town houses of the lands.
Background.
Frederick I and his successors ruled the Principality of Neuchâtel in personal union with Prussia from 1708 until 1798. Later, Napoleon Bonaparte deposed King Frederick William III of Prussia as prince of Neuchâtel, during the Napoleonic Wars.
After the Liberation Wars the principality was restored to Frederick William III, the Congress of Vienna (1814–15), in its general settlement of territorial questions after the Napoleonic Wars, ordained that Neuchâtel (or Neuenburg) should have a dual status: it was to be a canton of the reorganized Swiss Confederation and, at the same time, a hereditary principality belonging personally to the king of Prussia but separate from the Prussian kingdom.Thus Neuchâtel became the first and only monarchy to join the otherwise entirely republican Swiss cantons.
This arrangement caused dissatisfaction among the people of Neuchâtel, and in March 1848, a revolution took place and established a free republic. In the same year, the Swiss Confederation was revising the constitution and was transformed into a Federation.
Revolution movements were at that time shaking all of France, Germany, Austria, and Italy, and the king then, Frederick William IV of Prussia, was preoccupied with his kingdom’s troubles, could take no effective counteraction at the time.
King Frederick did not cede immediately, and several attempts at counter-revolution took place, culminating in the Neuchâtel Crisis of 1856–57. In 1857, Frederick William, the then current Duke of Prussia, finally renounced the monarchy's claim on the area.
In the celebration of the 50thAnniversary of the Independence of Neuchâtel from 1848, where the canton had a peaceful revolution, ceding from monarchy rule by Prussia to become a Republic, and truly a free member of the Swiss Confederacy.