Five-franc silver coin of Germinal
1803 ・ silver ・ 19th century ・ Napoleon I (the First Empire)
The monetary law of 28 March 1803 defined the currency of France for the century that followed. One franc = 4.5 grams of fine silver, bimetallism at a gold-to-silver ratio of 1 to 15.5, with silver as the anchor. This five-franc silver coin is the body of the Germinal franc. Napoleon avoided paper money because of the memory of the assignats' hyperinflation, and met the costs of war in metal, through contributions and requisitions from the occupied lands. His conquests left almost nothing behind, but the silver franc set down in law outlived the empire by a century, surviving until 1914.