The Latin Monetary Union was created in the period of Napoleon III, when French metal coins began to circulate and were copied from several countries around it.
Thus, Belgium, immediately after gaining independence, created a bimetallic monetary system like that of France, with gold and silver coins in francs and subdivisions into 100 cents. Switzerland acted in the same way with Italy, Telegraph reports.
In these conditions, Napoleon III, in order to avoid a currency war, returned to the old dream of Napoleon Bonaparte to create a unique monetary system for all these countries.
Thus, with the proposal of Napoleon III, on December 23, 1865, the treaty establishing the Latin Monetary Union between France, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy was signed in Paris, to which Greece joined in 1868.
Some of the currencies of the Latin Monetary Union
According to this treaty, the union of a unique bimetallic monetary system would be created, modeled after the French currency, the Franc, with the following characteristics:
- A unique bimetallic gold and silver coin of standard weight and purity/fineness would be created;
- The multiples and sub-multiples of the base currency would be the same for all member states and the ratio between the respective gold and silver currencies would be fixed at 1 to 15.5;
- With the exception of small silver coins of fineness 833/1000 or alloys, all metallic coins would be circulating and legally acceptable in all member states. Banknotes issued by the banks of each state were not regulated by this treaty, but their convertibility was guaranteed by the states themselves; and
- The iconography and denomination of the metallic monetary units were determined by the member states themselves.
The Latin Monetary Union was dissolved in 1927. /Telegrafi/
