On 25 November 2021, Swiss Post’s online shop buckled under the rush. The reason: Switzerland’s first crypto stamp, 175’000 copies at CHF 8.90 each. Since then Swiss Post has issued seven more editions, the latest jointly with Liechtenstein Post. Sheets turn up regularly on Ricardo and eBay at prices ranging from face value to pure fantasy. Here is what a crypto stamp actually is, which editions exist and how to estimate what yours is worth.
What is a crypto stamp?
Every crypto stamp has two parts. The first is an ordinary stamp, valid as postage, on a small sheet. The second is a digital image in the form of an Non-fungible token: a digital item whose ownership is recorded unambiguously on a blockchain. on the Polygon blockchain, which anchors its blocks to Ethereum. Swiss Post developed the technology with Inacta, a company based in Crypto Valley Zug.
The sheet acts as a A wallet whose access details are printed on paper instead of stored in an app.: a QR code shows which digital design you own. Under a scratch field sits a twelve-word A sequence of 12 or 24 words that acts as the master key to a wallet. Whoever knows it controls the contents. that lets you move the NFT to your own wallet. Technically, Swiss Post uses the ERC-1155 standard: all stamps with the same design share one token ID. Your stamp is therefore not one of a kind but one of, say, 350 identical copies of the “Matterhorn with marmot” design.
Worth knowing for collectors: crypto stamps are not part of Swiss Post’s official stamp programme. They are not included in philatelic subscriptions and cannot be exchanged or returned.
Every edition at a glance
- Nov 2021
Crypto stamp 1.0: CHF 8.90, 175’000 copies; the stamp shows the Matterhorn and the moon, the NFT one of 13 mountain designs. Sold out.
- Aug 2022
Crypto stamp 2.0: ten designs of 25’000 copies each at CHF 9. The NFTs are video clips by young Swiss filmmakers, made with the Locarno Film Festival.
- May 2023
Crypto stamp 3.0: 14 versions with AI-generated images from Swiss Digital Days 2022, from CHF 9 (Walter, no NFT) to CHF 999 (Aia, 50 copies).
- Apr 2024
Crypto stamp 4.0: Marmi the marmot travels across Switzerland. Basic Edition of 24 designs at 7’500 copies for CHF 9.90, plus Special, Wallpaper and Unique editions.
- Dec 2024
Crypto stamp 5.0 with Swiss-Ski: eleven snow-sports legends from Vreni Schneider to Marco Odermatt; Basic at 10’000 copies per design, plus Bronze, Silver, Gold and eleven one-offs.
- May 2025
Crypto stamp CHLI: first joint issue with Liechtenstein. Swiss Post sells the left half, Liechtenstein Post the right; six colour editions.
- Nov 2025
CHLI 2.0 with a winter design: six colours from Green (3’500 per country, CHF 9.90) to Rainbow (50 copies, CHF 499).
- Jun 2026
CHLI 3.0: for the first time a single stamp valid in both countries. Converting the NFT means choosing whether the cow is saved or burned.
Since edition 3.0, the price has been made up of face value plus an NFT surcharge that rises with rarity. For CHLI 3.0, each stamp costs CHF 9.00 postage plus CHF 0.90 (Green, 2’000 per country) up to CHF 490 (Rainbow, 50 per country). Per-order limits apply: ten Green sheets, but only one Rainbow.
How rare is your stamp? Print runs for edition 1.0
In the first edition, the paper stamp looks the same on all 175’000 copies. Only scanning the QR code reveals which of the 13 digital designs you have – and that is what drives collector value.
| Digital design | Token ID | Print run |
|---|---|---|
| Matterhorn | 1 | 65’000 |
| Dent Blanche | 2 | 45’000 |
| Piz Bernina | 3 | 30’000 |
| Säntis | 4 | 18’000 |
| Pilatus | 5 | 8’000 |
| Dufourspitze | 6 | 4’500 |
| Rigi | 7 | 2’500 |
| Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau | 8 | 1’000 |
| Matterhorn with marmot | 9 | 350 |
| Piz Bernina with ibex | 10 | 250 |
| Säntis with cow | 11 | 200 |
| Rigi with golden eagle | 12 | 150 |
| Pilatus with dragon | 13 | 50 |
For later editions, rarity is visible from the price or colour. Edition 2.0 is the exception: all ten designs have the same run, so complete sets and the popularity of individual films matter more.
Moving the NFT to your own wallet
You do not need a wallet – the NFT is already on the sheet. If you want to collect it digitally or list it on a marketplace, this is how it works:
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Scan the QR code
Scan the code on the sheet with your phone camera. The page shows the design and token ID, and whether the NFT is still on the paper wallet or has already been transferred.
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Only scratch if you need to
The silver field hides access to the paper wallet. On CHLI 3.0 the word sequence is built into the same code and appears after scanning. If you are collecting, leave the field untouched.
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Set up a wallet
Swiss Post recommends MetaMask and, on a phone, the browser inside the MetaMask app. Any wallet that supports Polygon will do.
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Get a little POL
Transactions on Polygon cost a fee in POL, formerly called MATIC. According to Swiss Post, a transfer normally costs less than a centime.
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Transfer the NFT
In the “Wallet” section of crypto-stamp.post.ch, enter the words and send the NFT to your own address. From then on the paper sheet is just a stamp.
For trading on NFT marketplaces, Swiss Post suggests importing the paper wallet into your wallet app as an extra account, because platforms such as OpenSea do not fully support the ERC-1155 standard for custom smart contracts. Each further transaction costs another small The fee paid to the network to process a transaction; on Polygon it is paid in POL.. How wallets work in general is covered in our guide to crypto wallets.
What is a crypto stamp worth?
We deliberately do not publish a price list. Listings on Ricardo and eBay vary wildly, and asking prices are not sale prices. Only one record is documented: in December 2021, Ricardo confirmed to the SonntagsZeitung that a copy of edition 1.0 had sold at auction for CHF 37’500. That was the peak of the NFT boom, not a benchmark.
How to estimate today’s value yourself:
- Identify the design. Scan the QR code and note the token ID. Without it, a 1.0 cannot be valued.
- Compare completed sales. On eBay, the “Sold items” filter shows what people actually paid. On Ricardo, look at bids rather than buy-now prices.
- Check NFT marketplaces. On OpenSea, Polygon collections show recent sales. Compare the contract address with the one Swiss Post publishes in its FAQ – fakes are in circulation.
- Factor in condition. An intact sheet, an unscratched field and an NFT still on the paper are worth more than an “empty” sheet whose NFT was passed on long ago.
- Sets and rarities. Complete series and tiny runs, such as Rainbow editions or the one-offs of 4.0 and 5.0 that Swiss Post auctioned on Ricardo for charity, follow their own rules.
Buying and selling
New editions are sold in the Postshop and – to order for home delivery – at post office counters, while stocks last. Liechtenstein halves and editions are sold by Liechtenstein Post through its own online shop. Sold-out editions are only available second-hand: Ricardo, eBay, stamp dealers and NFT marketplaces.
If you sell, state the edition, design and token ID, show photos of the sheet and say whether the scratch field is intact and whether the NFT is still on the paper. If only the NFT is sold, the seller transfers it to the buyer’s address once payment has arrived. For tax, a private collection follows the same principles as privately held crypto: it generally counts towards your taxable wealth, while gains from occasional sales are normally tax-free. The basics are in our guide to crypto tax in Switzerland.
A word of caution if you search for “crypto stamp unicorn”: Austrian Post issues its own crypto stamps, unrelated to the Swiss series. In the Swiss series, a unicorn only existed as the one-off Unique Edition of 4.0.
What the crypto stamp is not
A crypto stamp is a collectible, not an investment product. Swiss Post itself describes the risk as the same as for an ordinary stamp – plus the risks of the crypto world: volatility, user error and fraud. The key points:
- Lost words, lost NFT. If the NFT is on the sheet and the sheet goes missing, the NFT is gone forever.
- Wrong address. A typo in the destination address sends the NFT into the void, irreversibly. Always copy addresses from your wallet or use the QR code.
- Fake NFTs. Copies circulate on marketplaces. Only tokens issued by Swiss Post’s own A program on a blockchain that enforces rules automatically; here it manages the genuine crypto stamp NFTs. are genuine.
- No returns. Swiss Post does not exchange or take back crypto stamps.
Technical terms such as Polygon, gas fee and seed phrase are explained in our crypto glossary. And if you would rather own Ethereum or bitcoin directly than a philatelic NFT, you will need an account with a crypto exchange.
Would you rather own bitcoin or ether outright than a stamp NFT? An account with a crypto exchange is the first step.
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