1866 French franc

shirohniichan

Here's a coin I recently bought as a possible plate coin for an article I'm working on.

Does anyone know the importance of this coin to French monetary history? Looking it up in Krause will give you a hint.

Steve27

If it was an 1867, I would say that it was important because an international monetary convention held in in Paris that year agreed to use the French franc as a fixed international exchange value.

cosmicdebris

From 1857 to 1865 there were no 1 franc coins minted.

Steve27

Sorry Bill:

shirohniichan

<< <i>If it was an 1867, I would say that it was important because an international monetary convention held in in Paris that year agreed to use the French franc as a fixed international exchange value. >>



You're on the right track!

Why was the convention held? That is, what was the immediate cause? (Hint: I'm also looking for a Swiss franc from between 1850 and 1857, another from 1860-61 to go along with my 1875B).

Steve27

France sponsored the 1867 international monetary conference in order to get the world's major powers to adopt the same gold standard and a decimal coinage system (based on the French system).

MSD61

There were three international monetary conferences held in the city of Paris in the years 1867, 1878 and 1881. France sponsored an international monetary conference to which all the chief countries of the world sent delegates. At the conclusion of the conference, a resolution was adopted which called for all members to adopt the same single gold standard, a decimal coinage system, and to coordinate all the member states' coinage with the French system.

In the following three years there were 13 session where the resolution was debated, and rejected, by many conference member states for reasons of national prestige and entrenched political interest. Then came the outbreak of the Franco/Prussian war in 1870 where France was defeated by Prussia in 1871 and effectively put an end to all the enthusiasm that remained for a French-led monetary union.


The United States's response to this conference was the striking of these pattern coins the 1874 Bickford $10.00, the 1879 Flowing Hair and Coiled Hair Stellas, the 1880 Flowing Hair and Coiled Hair Stellas, and the 1879 Quintuple Stella, as well as a series of metric issues during the same time period.

edit for spelling

syraq

The Latin Monetary Union was perhaps the most successfull attempt for a single European currency until the euro. Greece was among the first 5 countries to sign the treaty along with Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and France of course,and adopt the standards, even in the bronze coins' specifications ,although the treaty did not specify anything like that. Great Britain remained faithfull to predecimal, the German states had already a similar system (their 20 mark is slightly heavier, closer to the sovereign) as well as Scandinavia.The rest of the European countries soon joined the LMU too,or simply adopted their standards unofficially, such as Albania and Romania for instance.

shirohniichan

These are all good answers.

What led to the international money conference? Specifically, what did Swtizerland do to cause the French concern and thus call for a conference?

MacCrimmon

<< <i>Why was the convention held? That is, what was the immediate cause? (Hint: I'm also looking for a Swiss franc from between 1850 and 1857, another from 1860-61 to go along with my 1875B). >>



Arbitrage. On January 31, 1860, Switzerland reduced the purity of her silver coins to 80%. These new Swiss francs were used to purchase French and Belgium francs at parity. However, the French and Belgium silver had a higher purity, so these coins were being removed from circulation and melted and recoined in Bern owing to the doctrine of 'free coinage'. Free coinage simply meant that you could take Grandma's sterling flatware, or any form of silver for that matter, to the mint and have it melted and receive a like amount in newly minted silver (or gold for that matter).

France then banned Swiss coinage in April of 1864 and reduced her own silver coinage to 83.5% purity the following month. The LMU only really addressed the issue of fineness and weight of the coins, but failed to address the issue of paper currencies and the convertibility of paper for coin......you can guess what then transpired. Good money chases out bad money, and around and around we go.......

shirohniichan

Mac is right.

To add to this, the new 1866 franc was no longer legal tender. The franc used to be legal tender, so Swiss coins with lower silver content were exchanged for French francs and could be used to buy French gold coins. France kept the silver standard, but to stem the outflow of gold they made the 5 franc piece legal tender and lowered the coins' mintages. This explains why the 5 franc coins stayed at .900 fine while the 2 franc and lower coins were made .835 fine.

PuddlePirate

Fascinating how "hard currency policy" can affect a country's trade imbalances when used aggressively by a foreign power for "their" own benifit.