Euro coin (2002, the French national side)

On 1 January 2002 the euro's notes and coins began to circulate, and on 17 February the French franc ceased to be legal tender. Here a story of more than six hundred years closes. The name franc began with the franc à cheval that John II struck in 1360 for his own ransom, and it lasted six hundred and forty-two years, to 2002. Born as a king's ransom, all but ruined in credit by the paper of the Revolution, steadied for a century by Napoleon's silver, melted down by two great wars, it gave way at the last to the common currency of Europe. The final parity, 1 euro = 6.55957 francs, became its epitaph.