Switzerland Coins 5 Francs 1986 500th Anniversary of the Battle of Sempach
Obverse: Swiss Cross above inscription and date.
Lettering: CONFOEDERATIO HELVETICA 5 FR 1986.
Reverse: Stylized design: Swiss Gevierthaufen at the Battle of Sempach on 9 Jul 1386. (The Swiss pikemen)
The pike square (German: Gevierthaufen or Gewalthaufen, meaning crowd of force) was a military tactic developed by the Swiss Confederacy during the 15th century for use by its infantry.
Edge Lettering: DOMINUS PROVIDEBIT (13 stars)
Artist: Rolf Brem, Luzern.
Value: 5 Francs / Franken / Francos.
Composition: Copper-Nickel (Cu 75 / Ni 25).
Weight: 13.2 g
Diameter: 31.45 mm
Mint Mark: B (Bern)
Mintage: 75,000
Krause & Mishler Number: KM# 65
Battle of Sempach
The Battle of Sempach was fought on 9 July 1386, between Leopold III, Duke of Austria and the Old Swiss Confederacy. The battle was a decisive Swiss victory in which Duke Leopold and numerous Austrian nobles died. The victory helped turn the loosely allied Swiss Confederation into a more unified nation and is seen as a turning point in the growth of Switzerland.
At Meiersholz, near Sempach, Swiss confederate forces from Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, and Lucern met an Austrian army led by the Habsburg duke Leopold III of Tirol and his commander in chief, Johann von Ochsenstein. The Habsburg forces were retaliating against Lucern, which had recently invaded adjacent Habsburg territories. Estimates of the number of combatants on either side vary from 6,000 Austrians against 1,500 or 1,600 Swiss to 4,000 against 4,000; in any case the Austrians were routed, and Leopold himself was killed. According to legend, the Swiss owed their victory to the personal heroism of a certain Arnold Winkelried, who was said to have deliberately gathered into his own body the lances of the vanguard of Austrian knights. The Battle of Sempach showed that an army of Swiss eidgenossen (“oath brothers”) armed primarily with the pike could defeat chivalric elites in the open field, whether mounted or dismounted.