I have been collecting Schützenfest medals (Swiss shooting medals) for 20 years and my father has been collecting since 1961. Are primary interest is medasl but we also collect shooting cups, jetons, watches and memorabilia.

I have made this poll to get an idea of how much interest there is in schützenfest medals from the members of this forum. I hope that you participate and ask me any questions that come to mind regarding shooting medals etc.

Thank you,

Rod

Welcome to CoinPeople. Hope you like it here. The medal in your post is beautiful.

Thanks,

I have many and love to talk about schützenfest collecting!

Thanks for your participation in the poll.

I'm glad to be aboard

Here's another:

I have had my eye on them for some time. I have not yet taken the plunge but have plans to soon.

Welcome! I voted for "I wish a had some they're beautiful!"

Can you give us some history behind them? What kind of festivities were happening at Schützenfests?

They fall outside my collecting interests (unless they are early, aluminum, and as nice as the ones you've shown so far), but I always like to learn more about anything interesting. Were they awards? Participation medals? Other? Tell us more.

Shooting competitions are a way of life in the Germanic regions of Europe, especially in Switzerland. The initial Swiss Federal Shooting Festival (Eidgenössisches Schützenfest) was held in 1824. Federal contests along with cantonal, city, and club competitions have continued through to the present day.

Various awards for marksmanship have been won by the competitors. Shooting medals and shooting cups are the most common forms of award. Books illustrating and listing these awards have been published in Switzerland.

Swiss shooting medals were struck in a variety of metals including gold, silver, bronze, white metal and aluminum, with silver being the most common. Mintages are very low with the average mintage of the 45mm silver being 700-800 pieces. The scarcity of medals has increased over the years due to the awards being melted for bullion, being lost, and general attrition. The size of most medals range form 23 millimeters to 62 millimeters with 45 mm being the most prevalent.

Welcome to CoinPeople
I know you will enjoy being here.

I have yet to acquire any Swiss shooting medals, but I have seen several that I would like to own someday. The ones you posted are beauties !!!

Are there non-Swiss shooting metals as well? German, Austrian, Tyrol?

Yes..to answer your question.

While I am primarily interested in Swiss shooting medals, which there are many, there are many German shooting medals as well which I have quite a few. There are also Austrian and some Italian although most of the Italian ones are actually from the Italian Swiss. (Ticino)

There are even shooting medals from South American where many Swiss nationals lived while working in the mining industry and carried on the schützenfest traditions.

bump for the new members.

Don't own any but they sure are pretty.

I have none but would like to own some. Specifically, yours. Please?

Beautiful but outside my area of collecting, perhaps one-day. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for keeping the thread alive, here are a couple more:

I'm hooked on them, especially the one's designed by Holy Freres.