The Bazor – the Franc that Never Was

On 24^th June 1928, the French parliament, under Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré, passed a bill establishing a new gold value for the French franc, namely 65.5 mg of 900 fineness gold (equivalent to 0.001895 troy ounce of fine gold). This implied an exchange rate against sterling of 124.21 francs, compared with the pre-First World War rate of 25.22. The new value was meant to allow France once again to adopt the Gold Standard (which proved to be a very popular policy and helped Poincaré to win the subsequent election later in the year).

The 100-franc gold coin shown here, known as the Bazor after its designer, Lucien Bazor, was intended to implement the Poincaré law and restore France to the Gold Standard in its original form. The Bazor was thus meant to be a circulating coin whose weight and fineness were calculated from values specified in the 1928 Act. Very few of these were minted in the period 1929-1933. But then, and in spite of the turbulent monetary conditions in the 1930s, a large quantity of Bazors (13 million pieces in total) was minted between 1935 and 1936. However, they were never put into circulation. Instead, they were remelted after France was forced into another franc devaluation in October 1936 and thus forced to leave the gold exchange standard.

The Bazor would have been the final coin in a long series of circulating French gold coins, beginning with the Louis d’Or, which was initiated in 1640 by the reforms led by Cardinal Richelieu under Louis XIII, and continuing with the various versions of the Napoleon in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Weight: 6.55 g; Fineness: 900; Diameter 21 mm