Some new French Gold
JCMhouston
Posts: 5,306 ✭✭✭
Well new to me anyway, I just love the obverse bust design so I've been picking up a few dates in MS65 when they sell for a reasonable price. I just picked up this 1907 and 1910.
France was one of the founding countries of the Latin Monetary Union (LMU) in 1865 and switched to a pure gold standard. French currency was considered a reserve currency in the 19th and early 20th C. but WW I caused France to abandon the gold standard due to the costs of the war and the Franc began its descent. It dropped by almost 85% between 1915 and 1926, then after a brief replay of the gold standard again from 1928-1936 WW II intervened. In 1960 they finally introduced the New Franc and exchanged them for old Francs at the ratio of 1 New Franc for 100 old Francs.
Under the Breton Woods agreement the Franc in 1945 was valued at 119.1 = $1, in 1949 350 = $1, and by 1958 493.7 = $1. The Breton Woods agreement was of course terminated when the US unilaterally declared that the USD was no longer convertible to gold. This of course allowed the debasement of the USD to begin and allowed stackers to make money, which isn't altogether a bad thing as long as you are one of the stackers.
France was one of the founding countries of the Latin Monetary Union (LMU) in 1865 and switched to a pure gold standard. French currency was considered a reserve currency in the 19th and early 20th C. but WW I caused France to abandon the gold standard due to the costs of the war and the Franc began its descent. It dropped by almost 85% between 1915 and 1926, then after a brief replay of the gold standard again from 1928-1936 WW II intervened. In 1960 they finally introduced the New Franc and exchanged them for old Francs at the ratio of 1 New Franc for 100 old Francs.
Under the Breton Woods agreement the Franc in 1945 was valued at 119.1 = $1, in 1949 350 = $1, and by 1958 493.7 = $1. The Breton Woods agreement was of course terminated when the US unilaterally declared that the USD was no longer convertible to gold. This of course allowed the debasement of the USD to begin and allowed stackers to make money, which isn't altogether a bad thing as long as you are one of the stackers.
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Cool history write-up too!
“We are only their care-takers,” he posed, “if we take good care of them, then centuries from now they may still be here … ”
Todd - BHNC #242
I have a raw 1908 Rooster I bought from Carl Wohlforth last month.
--Severian the Lame
That is one beautiful design.
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Just got some Russian gold in myself, dig on the foreign stuff with historical value.
Got quoins?