Demand For Roger Federer Coin Crashes Swissmint Website

Roger Federer has made a career of serving up more than his opponents can handle. Add the Swissmint to the list.

Explosive demand for a commemorative Federer coin released yesterday threw the Mint’s website into turmoil, leaving many fans unable to buy.

“We had 2.5 million clicks. It was too much for the shop to handle,” said Swissmint CEO Marius Haldimann.

“We expected and planned for high demand, but we never imagined it would be this big. When Roger posted a link on his social media channels the website immediately had problems due to all the traffic. Some fans could access the shop but could not finish the order. Others could not get onto the website.”

Of the 55,000 20-franc silver coins offered in the pre-sale window, 35,000 have been snapped up. The remaining 20,000 coins from the initial run are expected to sell quickly when the website returns to full functionality. An additional 40,000 will be minted in May, when a 50-franc gold coin will also be released.

“We have had a lot of fans emailing us asking if they can buy the coin, but we can’t take credit card details via email,” said Mr. Haldimann. “We are just asking fans to be patient and keep trying the website. We are working hard to resolve the problem as quickly as possible.”

This is the first time in its history that Swissmint has created a commemorative coin to honour a living person.