The écu of 5 Francs - Moruzzi Numismatica Roma

This type of silver coin was produced during the Napoleonic era with a weight of 25 grams and a gold content of 900 milliseconds. On this coin there was the effigy of Napoleon Bonaparte, initially as First Consul and later as Emperor of France. After the fall of Napoleon, the production of coins of the same type continued. After the establishment of the Latin Monetary Union, the écu of 5 francs was similar in weight and in content to the other coins of the union with the same value, including the 5 Italian lire. In the Latin Monetary Union, coins could circulate freely within the member states and four of them were equal to the Marengo of 20 francs. The European Agreement was mainly based on the French monetary system, that was bimetallic, in which both gold and silver were legal tender. The gold legal tender of gold and silver francs was regulated with a ratio gold/silver equal to 15,5 more or less, that is a franc had a value of 4,5 grams of pure silver or 0,29025 grams of gold. Then history told us that the coexistence of both monetary standards (gold and silver) originated a potential source of instability. The germinal franc system was based on the invariance hypothesis about the price of gold and silver and it considered stable volumes, conditions and production costs of the two metals. Because of these circumstances, a crisis of this system would be possible at any time. Many countries minted these coins circulating also in other states of the Union, like signatory countries  - such as France, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland and Greece -, or the associated countries with bilateral agreements  - such as Austria-Hungary, Sweden, Russia, Finland, Romania, Spain, the Papal State, San Marino, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Crete, Serbia, Bulgaria, Venezuela, Peru, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Danish West Indies, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Tunisia, Comoros, Congo, Puerto Rico and Eritrea.

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