French franc — 1795 to euro conversion
French franc: a historical unit of account.
- Dates in use
- Introduction and ending not established
- Ancestry branch
- French franc
Its place in the family
All ancestors and descendants ↗The diagram shows up to three parents and three children. Every direct connection is listed below.
French franc
This currencyTrace its ancestry backward
French franc
Livre tournois
Frankish denier–livre
Roman solidus–nomisma
Roman as–denarius accounting
Earlier ancestry is not established here.
1 later contribution joined this currency. See those connections →
The story
The surviving evidence establishes this unit of account, but a fuller narrative is still being developed. Its known connections are shown above; the research page documents what is established and what remains uncertain.
Turning points
Authorization
Delage quotes the 15 August 1795 law defining a five-gram franc at nine-tenths silver. [1]
Name revival
The revolutionary monetary unit reuses the historic franc name. Not one continuously circulating national currency since 1360. [2]
Unit replacement
The law of 18 germinal III names the franc in place of the livre. Naming law; separate from silver specification and later conversion tariff. [3]
Euro monetary substitution
1 EUR = 6.55957 FRF. France: euro adoption 1999-01-01; cash 2002-01-01. Regulation 974/98 substitutes the euro for each participating state’s currency on its adoption date; cash changeover is separately defined. [4] [5] [6]
Euro cash changeover
France: euro adoption 1999-01-01; cash 2002-01-01. [5]
Legal tender end
France’s dual-circulation period ends. Legal-tender end is distinct from later redemption deadlines. [7]
Sources and evidence
- Irène Delage; Fondation Napoléon · A history of the Franc: the key moments C220 ↗
- Monnaie de Paris · Franc à cheval de Jean II le Bon; MON B 001506; Law of 18 germinal an III · Law of 18 germinal an III — weights and measures C732 ↗
- Law of 18 germinal an III · Law of 18 germinal an III — weights and measures C733 ↗
- Council of the European Union · Council Regulation (EC) 2866/98 — consolidation at 1 January 2026 C672 ↗
- Council of the European Union · Council Regulation (EC) 974/98 — consolidation at 1 January 2026 C673 ↗
- Council of the European Union · Council Regulation (EC) 974/98 — consolidation at 1 January 2026 C646 ↗
- European Commission · European Commission — France and the euro C740 ↗
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Full claims, evidence coverage, corrections and earlier interpretations are kept separately.
Cite this page
“French franc — 1795 to euro conversion.” The Family Tree of Money. © Field Technologies, Inc. Reader edition 2026-10-13; research dataset v44. https://familytreeofmoney.org/currency/FTM000175.html