Street signs auction

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For this sale, 300 street signs will be auctioned. Two copies of some signs will be sold (“a” and “b”), often differing in their format, their thickness or their script. A certain number of street names will only be available as a single version, as these are the final signs available.

The signs will be auctioned on the Swiss online sales website, ricardo.ch. The starting price will be CHF 50 with bids raised by CHF 5. The City has decided to use the money collected from the auction to finance the new feminised street signs.

A three-part auction

The auction will be held across three weeks:

• street names beginning with the letters A to H: from 8 to 13 November 2021
• street names beginning with the letters I to P: from 15 to 20 November 2021
• street names beginning with the letters R to Z: from 22 to 27 November 2021

The complete list of signs to be auctioned can be consulted below:

Important: street names not included on the list are not on sale!

Main thoroughfares and unknown streets

Almost 200 names will be auctioned of the 800 to be found around the City of Geneva. These streets are different from previous auctions, apart from certain exceptions following requests from residents. Some variants are nevertheless included in the batch under a different name, for example “square” or “quai” instead of the “avenue” already sold. Finally, several names requested by the public have been included in this auction.

The signs on offer therefore contain a number of main thoroughfares such as avenue Wendt, boulevard du Pont-d’Arve, boulevard des Tranchées, as well as numerous less well-known streets including rue Guye, rue Hornung and rue Zurlinden. Mountains are given pride of place with passage des Alpes, rue du Môle, rue du Mont-de-Sion and rue du Reculet. Rural addresses are also included, such as chemin des Vignes, chemin Sous-Bois, rue des Fontaines-Saintes and chemin du Furet. Finally, the selection includes a few rarities such as rue Evêque, passage du Cendrier and chemin du Creux-de-Saint-Jean, which no longer exist today. Certain models are characterised by larger or longer formats, while the majority of the signs are 50 centimetres long by 20 centimetres high.

Old models

The signs to be auctioned are all old models, which were replaced at the beginning of the 1990s by those that can still be seen in the streets today. Following the decision to change the presentation of the street signs, every sign within the city was changed. The script and format of the new signs were harmonised and small texts were added under the names of personalities.

The old models were stocked in the city’s warehouses. Bearing the patina of time, they may be marked by wear, scratches or traces of rust.

Useful information

The signs will be auctioned on the website www.ricardo.ch in the Collections and rarities / signs / other signs section. A direct link to the signs to be auctioned will be available here from midday on 8 November.

To participate in the auction, you must register in advance on the website www.ricardo.ch (free). You will then be able to place a bid for one or more signs. At the end of the auction, the person who won the auction can pick up their sign from the Urban Planning, Civil Engineering and Mobility Department of the City of Geneva until 24 December 2021.