Despite it being a stronger currency, is it exchangeable in the United States for dollars? Would that mean I’ll be getting more in dollars due to that having high value? Also, why is the Swiss Franc more colorful in its appearance while US Dollars look rather bland in comparison? To break down each denomination’s value:

CHF ~ in USD
Fr. 1000 $1278
Fr. 200 $255
Fr. 100 $127
Fr. 50 $63
Fr. 20 $25
Fr. 10 $12

Meanwhile, the value of US Dollar is lower in comparison to the Franc:

USD ~ in CHF
$100 Fr. 78.30
$50 Fr. 39.15
$20 Fr. 15.66
$10 Fr. 7.83
$5 Fr. 3.92
$2 Fr. 1.57
$1 Fr. 0.78

The lowest bill denomination is Fr. 10 (or $12) so anything below that is issued in coins. But, the real indicator is the Big Mac Index: for instance, the burger in Swiss McDonalds is Fr. 7.30 ($8) with VAT included while the same thing is $5.79 (before tax) in the USA meaning you have to pay more for the same item.

However the mininum wage in Geneva (with a population bit less than Scotsdale or Boise) alone is Fr. 24.59 ($31.40) per hour, while the minimum wage in let’s say Seattle is $20.76 per hour so technically, the Swiss have more money. Just because of their currency’s value, it makes US Dollar look cheap.

  • garbage_world@lemmy.world
    1·
    2 minutes ago

    Nominal value of currency doesn’t matter that much.

    Important: I don’t mean the changes in that value. They matter a lot.

  • Scipitie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    1·
    1 hour ago

    This got way longer than expected but the tldr is: foreign exchange is super complex and depends on a lot of factors which don’t matter to you as money user. I tried to give a few examples below.

    Plus: You’re mixing up two very different concepts:

    Fiat evaluation and purchasing power.

    First, money;

    “More worth” is a natural instinct but doesn’t reflect how the money market works: it’s a question of how much of that money is in circulation as well for example:

    1107650 CHF Million

    19396,90 USD Billion

    (Source tradingeconomics.com ).

    So while it’s the CHF is slightly over value when compared one to one the picture is different when you look at total money available. Then you look at production capacity, glue creation and supply and demand for those currencies. All of this will flow into the price.

    The minimum wage discussion is a completely different one: here you need to compare minimum wage to the purchasing power of the area you are looking at and take into consideration how the tax and financial situation changes to be able to compare it.

    There’s for example concept called big Mac index which is a crude way of showing the difference: how much does MacDonald’s charge for their bullshit? They are everywhere and quite good at finding a acceptable local price.

    If you want to dive deeper a key word to look for is the Gini Index with which the wealth distribution is quantified. I’m not good enough to explain it well though.

    Now for the colors: design of money is the job of the nations (or unions) main bank to decide usually. The US seem to have the creativity of a washed down rock while others are more creative.

    The Euro money for example is designed with guardrails by each member country but color, size and form are fixed and optimized to be easily recognized even with various visual impediments, which I personally really like.