¼ Franc – France

France in 1817 was navigating a precarious and complex monetary landscape in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars. The Bourbon Restoration under Louis XVIII inherited a severe financial crisis, characterized by a massive public debt and a chaotic circulation of multiple forms of money. The most pressing issue was the legacy of the assignats and mandats territoriaux—paper currencies from the Revolutionary era that had hyperinflated and become worthless. While these were gone, their memory bred a deep public distrust of paper money, leaving the country reliant on a scarce supply of gold and silver coinage for significant transactions.

The actual currency in circulation was a confusing mixture. Alongside precious metal coins, there were various forms of private and public credit, including notes from the Bank of France (founded in 1800) and a plethora of commercial bills. However, the Bank of France's notes were not yet fully established as a trusted national paper currency; they were primarily used in Paris and major commercial centers. In the provinces, transactions were often conducted using foreign coins, old pre-Revolutionary coins, and even barter, reflecting a fractured and inefficient monetary system that hampered economic recovery and national unity.

Recognizing this instability as a threat to both economic revival and political legitimacy, the government of the Duc de Richelieu, advised by Minister of Finance Baron Louis, pursued a policy of rigorous deflation and a return to "sound money." Their goal was to restore the franc germinal, the bimetallic (gold and silver) standard established by Napoleon in 1803, which had been abandoned during the war. This meant strictly controlling the issuance of paper money, building up metal reserves, and ultimately redeeming the vast state debt in hard currency—a painful but, in their view, necessary process to re-establish international credit and long-term monetary stability for the restored monarchy.