The Sou Shall Rise Again

"A sou is a sou," the French used to say, pocketing the 5-centime change on their glass of Pernod. But this ancient expression of French thrift became meaningless when, with the fall of the franc that began with World War I, the sou gradually descended to its present poker-chip worthlessness of one-hundredth of an American cent.

One of De Gaulle's first major steps towards putting France's house in order last December was stabilizing the franc at 493.7 to the dollar through a devaluation of 17.5%. The stabilization worked, but the low esteem of the franc as a unit of foreign exchange still rankled. This week the French Treasury put into effect Operation Le Franc Lourd (the heavy franc): by striking two zeros off all existing currency, the outside-France value of the franc jumped 100 times, to nearly five-to-the-dollar. The franc thus again became a respectable neighbor of the British shilling (14-c-) and the West German mark (24-c-).

Under the old system, business transactions and-government appropriations were made in astronomical figures (current French budget in old francs: 6,189,000,000,000). But the changeover poses new problems. Despite plenty of warnings, some Frenchmen are sure to write checks after July 15, the changeover day, without marking N.F. (New Francs) in front of the figures. Shopkeepers may try to raise prices under the guise of rounding off the price of an article that cost 450 old francs to a simple five francs in the new currency. To prevent this, the government for a time is requiring all price tags to bear both old and new prices. Workers accustomed to receive 40,000 francs a month may grumble at only 400 --until they discover a bottle of red wine now costs only a franc and the resurrected sou will buy a box of matches.

It will take the French mint five or six years to replace the country's coinage completely, and for a time the old banknotes will simply be issued overprinted in red with their new values, until new coins (including a silver 5-franc piece the size and approximate value of a silver dollar) can be turned out. But once again a thrifty Frenchman can say, "A sou is a sou."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.