I am writing a historical fiction novel set in the French Revolution. I have been trying to do some research to make sure that it will be as historically accurate as possible. One thing I have not been able to find is about currency. I would like to know what the different types were and how much they were worth, least to greatest. This would be so very helpful.|||The decimal "franc" was established as the national currency by the French Revolutionary Convention in 1795 as a decimal unit (1 franc = 10 decimes = 100 centimes) of 4.5 g of fine silver. This was slightly less than the livre of 4.505 g but the franc was set in 1796 at 1.0125 livres (1 livre, 3 deniers), reflecting in part the past minting of sub-standard coins.
However, the circulation of this metallic currency declined during the Republic, which exchanged the old gold and silver reserves (needed to finance wars and try to solve the shortage of food supplies by importing them) against printed assignats, initially designed as bonds based on the value of the confiscated goods of churches, but later declared as legal tender currency.
So at the time of the French Revolution, the livre and denier (coins put in circulation centuries before) were put out of circulation and the franc and paper assignat were brought in. The assignat, a de facto currency, was more widely utilized, however, because it could be printed as much as needed - but that lead to hyperinflation, and the franc began to be used more.|||Well, since the first revolution the French have used the Franc and have been fairly reasonable in it's valuation, but that was not always so. A very strong case can be historically made that because of the actions of a single currency speculator in the 1710-1720 period, France was doomed for the living memory of those events. Even to this day, the French economic model would shys away from the sort of speculation common on Wall Street.
http://blog.mises.org/10302/john-law-and鈥?/a>
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