Subject: CH=Switzerland<br/>
Date: Jan 31, 2002 @ 00:24<br/>
Author: Brendan Whyte (&quot;Brendan Whyte&quot; &lt;b.whyte@...&gt;)<br/>
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<div id="ygrps-yiv-1462463219">CH= Confederatio Helvetica. As Switz. has 4 official languages, the obvious <br/>
SW or SWI would discriminate in favour of one or more of them to the <br/>
exclusion of others.<br/>
So they use Latin (of course!). Justl ike on their stamps which say <br/>
&quot;Helvetia&quot;, instead of Switzerland in 4 languages.<br/>
On their money they do use all 4 languages though.<br/>
Also, the country was known as the Helvetian Republic after the French took <br/>
over in the late 1790s. Similar French latinisms included the Cisalpine <br/>
Republic and the Batavian Republic.<br/>
Helvetia being a sufficiently &#39;neutral&#39; name, as Switzerland/Suisse/Schweitz <br/>
is a little too close to the name of one of the cantons.<br/>
Helvetia was used on stamps fomr 1850 when the individual cantons united <br/>
their postal operations.<br/>
BW<br/>
<br/>
<blockquote><span title="ireply"> &gt;<br/>
&gt;Anybody who knows how Switzerland became CH?<br/>
&gt;<br/>
&gt;CH = Switzerland<br/>
&gt;<br/>
&gt;Jesper<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
 </span></blockquote>_________________________________________________________________<br/>
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