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lamentables January 21 2011, 11:51:51 UTC
CHE = Switzerland

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peteyoung January 21 2011, 12:02:40 UTC
At your prompt I just googled 'CHE country code' and came up with this explanation at passportstamp.com:I'd always been confused as to why Switzerland had the country code CHE / CH, as that sounds nothing like Switzerland. Apparently it's from the Latin 'Conféderatio Helvetica', meaning 'Helvetic Confederation'. Apparently using the Latin name means that it doesn't favour one of the country's official languages. Which is nice.

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lamentables January 21 2011, 12:06:32 UTC
I knew the Helvetica thing from a brief flirtation with stamp collecting in my youth, but I'd never put it together with the separately acquired knowledge that CHE=Switzerland. Doh!

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peteyoung January 21 2011, 12:41:27 UTC
Isn't it still 'Helvetia' on their stamps? Being one quarter Swiss with relatives there, I can recall getting plenty of postcards from Switzerland when I was a kid.

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CHE; photo magscanner January 22 2011, 08:01:46 UTC
Rhaetia (ok, not exactly by borders; but see Rhaetian Railway). AKA Raetia. Odd way to spell it, though, with a C...

Yes, I know. CH on cars.

Wonderful photograph. Someone will use that in an ad for ... if not the bank that's there, then for some unknown bank of the nebulous future that will deserve a building like that.

Is that Superman, holding up a glowing mass of U 235 at the right upper corner?

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