Why Do All the Coins Look the Same?

I'm super lazy today so this is going to be a very short post about Swiss coins. As you can see at the picture, the francs just look the same. This is really inconvenient when you are trying to find the right amount of money at a cashier. Moreover, I usually already feel embarrassed by the fact that I can't understand the basic numbers in French even after studying it for 6 years. My life is difficult, I know:)

When you look closely, you can see the 50 cents coin is actually 1/2 franc. Who came up with this idea? I don'w know. Wikipedia says the coins are actually very old: "The oldest coins are still valid today; the 10 Rappen coins dating back to 1879. They are therefore among the world oldest coins still valid today." This is cool, I agree. But the daily use is complicated :)