Why does the US/CNR pair have the dollar first but most other top quoted dollar pairs are reverse, EUR/US, GBP/US, etc.?
Right, but why is the swissy different from othe others that are the most quoted. Most are GBP/US, EU/US. In news stories and in top curency trades, the Swissy is the only one traded in Swiss francs = $US.
In, for example, USD & GBP: USD/GBP: buy GBP for your USD by buying. GBP/USD: sell USD for GBP by selling. In both cases you get GBP for your USD. Right?
The short answer: convention / tradition, really, I think. A slightly longer answer: another way to think of this would be that virtually all currency pairs, involving USD, both major and minor, are quoted directly, from a USD perspective, as USD/---. The only exceptions are the "Queen's currencies" -- GBP, AUD and NZD -- plus the (somehow queenless) EUR, quoted directly from their perspective, that is, indirectly, or inversely from a USD perspective, as ---/USD. So swissy, USD/CHF, actually follows the general rule rather than departs from it.