Roger Federer coin goes public and immediately causes Swissmint website to crash

What's the story?

Roger Federer recently became the first living person to feature on a Swiss Franc coin. However, the demand for the special commemorative coin has been so great, that it caused the website of Swissmint - the commissioning agency - to crash.

In case you didn't know...

Federer is Switzerland's greatest ever sportsperson, and arguably the most famous person in the country's history. Before Federer, Switzerland was mostly known for its beautiful scenery, equally beautiful chocolate and aristocratic watches. But now, Federer is almost always the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about the country.

To honor the tennis great's achievements, Swissmint had announced the issue of a special commemorative 20 franc coin that would be available to the public. The coin went on presale on 3 December, and the website has been visited 2.5 million times since then.

The heart of the matter

Federer is one of the most famous sportspersons in the world, so it comes as no surprise that the Swissmint website was inundated with orders for the coin featuring him. The CEO of the institution Marius Haldimann has been quoted as saying,

“We had 2.5 million clicks... It was too much for the shop to handle."

Haldimann then stated that they had anticipated high demand, but admitted that it ended up being beyond their expectations.

"We never imagined it would be this big. When Roger (Federer) posted a link on his social media channels the website immediately had problems due to all the traffic."

Federer posted a couple of tweets acknowledging the unprecedented gesture by Swissmint, and that is probably what caused the news to spread like wildfire.

Thank you Switzerland🇨🇭and Swissmint for this incredible honour and privilege. 🙏#DankeSchweiz#MerciLaSuisse#GrazieSvizzera#GraziaSvizra pic.twitter.com/gNs6qYjOh6

— Roger Federer (@rogerfederer) December 2, 2019

Thanks, Fed’s or tail?😄 https://t.co/R4yNtWPgIv

— Roger Federer (@rogerfederer) December 3, 2019

Many of the fans were able to access the shop but when it came to finishing the order, the website wouldn't allow them to. Others, however, were unable to get on to the website at all.

What's next?

Due to the limited number of available coins, the demand was always going to be higher than the supply. Nevertheless, Swissmint has assured those who were unlucky at the first attempt that even though 15,000 coins have already been purchased, there are still 20,000 up for grabs.