the.com/franc
The currency that proved Europe could agree on a name even when it couldn't agree on anything else.
means The former national currency of France (and, at various times, Belgium, Switzerland, and other countries) before the euro replaced most of them.
from The name traces back to medieval French coins stamped with 'Francorum Rex' — 'King of the Franks' — minted to pay a king's ransom in the 1300s. 'Franc' is literally the Franks' own name for themselves, which also gives us the word 'frank' (meaning candid), since under Frankish rule only free men — Franks — had the legal standing to speak plainly. So the coin and the attitude share a root: both claim a kind of freedom.
- origin
- named from Latin Francorum Rex, King of the Franks
- replaced by
- the euro, starting 1999, fully gone by 2002
- still alive
- Swiss franc survives, proudly euro-free
- inflation legend
- French franc lost value, then simply vanished