Switzerland will celebrate Roger Federer with two special coins

On Sunday the Swiss government confirmed that they will dedicate a commemorative coin to Roger Federer. The Swiss tennis icon - one of the greatest athletes of the 21th Century - will be the first living person to be featured on a coin minted by the Swissmint. Federer's face will be on the 'heads' side of a 20-franc silver coin, which will have an issue date of January 23, 2020, and a 50-franc gold coin that will be released in May.

The government said the 20-time Grand Slam champion is "probably Switzerland's most successful individual sportsman, he is also the perfect ambassador for Switzerland." Anticipating high demand, Swissmint has launched for the first time a pre-sale of an 'uncirculated quality' of the coin, available on the Swissmint website for CHF30 (about 27 euros) from December 2-19. Swissmint has occasionally introduced commemorative coins celebrating Swiss historical events, people and organisations: in 2019, commemorative coins were dedicated to the Apollo 11 moon landing and the centenary of the Circus Knie.