Mixed-Up Money

While he was prescribing for the world's monetary system, Charles de Gaulle faced a more local money problem. France last week was more than ever the land of funny money. The confusion began in 1958, when De Gaulle turned his Olympian glance on the nation's currency and found it had too much grandeur--in figures. A shoeshine, for instance, cost 100 francs, and a meal at an inexpensive restaurant 1,000.

Still Tinkering. De Gaulle's government diminished the dizzying zeros by merely shifting the decimal point two places to the left. Thus a bank note that read 1,000 was worth only ten "New Francs." There were lots of mixups. Politicians cunningly mentioned old francs when telling constituents how much the government was spending on their welfare, and then shifted to New Francs when discussing taxes.

Gradually fresh bills in New Franc denominations replaced the old bills, but the French government still kept tinkering. After only two years in circulation, the old 100 New Franc bill, showing Napoleon, was replaced by a new 100-franc bill showing the bewigged head of the 17th century poet-playwright Pierre Corneille. The Banque de France has lately displayed a preference for literary men over generals and politicians--Voltaire last year replaced Richelieu on the 10-franc note, and Racine replaced Henri IV on the 50. But Frenchmen are now complaining that the new 100-franc Corneille note is confusingly similar to the 500 note, which shows Moliere. Nonsense, replied a harassed bank spokesman, Moliere's curls are much fuller than Corneille's.

Easy Mistake. There was trouble about coins too. The New Franc coins issued in 1963 were the same size as those they replaced, except for the 50-centime piece, which was considered too cumbersome. It was trimmed down to within 1 1/2 millimeters of the diameter of the new 20-centime piece and to within a few grams of its weight. Frenchmen often mistook the 50-for the 20-centime piece, and they soon discovered that the 20-centime piece worked perfectly well in 50-centime vending machines, while the 50-centime worked in 1-franc machines.

The government has finally given up, is now preparing to remove the troublesome 50-centime coin and replace it with a new half-franc piece of different size. Also adding to the morale of inflation-ridden Frenchmen will be a new 10-franc piece, purposely made very heavy to give "the impression that the franc is a solid, stable currency."

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