This post is a fixed and edited version of my old post about LMU coins.
Latin Monetary Union
The Latin Monetary Union (LMU) was a 19th-century attempt to unify several Europeancurrencies into a single currency that could be used in all the member states, at a time when most national currencies were still made out of gold and silver. It was established in 1865 and disbanded in 1927. Many countries minted coins according to the LMU standard even though they did not formally accede to the LMU treaty. (wikipedia)
All LMU countries include (+ Countries which in "1" was worth 5 grams of silver):
France, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, Greece, Spain, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Venezuela, Cambodia, Austria, -Hungary, Congo free state, Crete, Danish west indies, Dominican republic (1 Franco), Finland, Monaco, Liechenstein, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Papal states, Peru peseta, San Marino, Italian Eritrea, Tunisia, (Comoro Islands), Ecuador, (Russia)
Many of these weren't actually part of the LMU, some did not issue all the coins (1, 2, 5 * silver coins, 10, 20 and possibly also 100 * gold coins) for example Monaco did not issue a 1 franc, Finland a 5 markkaa.
Why do you list Sardinia-Piedmont? It had been Italy for six years by the time the LMU was founded in 1867.
There was some interest in the UK in decimalising around this time, but less well known is this pattern coin, a surreptitious attempt to mint an internationally circulating British coin at LMU standards. Behold, a British 5 Franc coin: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces97389.html
Seeing as the LMU existed throughout a large chunk of the period I collect from primarily (1815-1945), I have a lot of types from the European members of the LMU countries, particularly France, Spain, Italy and Belgium. I'll see if I can get some pictures up tonight.
The LMU was founded in 1867, but based on the standard set during the Napoleonic era when the Franc replaced the Livre. Most of Italy also used the Franc at that time, and the Kingdom of Sardinia continued to use it after Napoleon's defeat, even though it was named Lira. The other Italian states reverted to their previous systems, but when Italy was united in 1861 the Sardinian Lira, at par with the French Franc, became the currency of Italy.
Meanwhile Belgium had adopted the same standard after its independence from the Netherlands in 1830. Switzerland followed in 1848 when it became a confederation. Spain went through several monetary reforms before introducing the Peseta in 1869.
The Germans and British were invited but never joined. The Dutch did not want to give up on their Gulden either, and the Scandinavian countries (Finland is Nordic, not Scandinavian) founded their own monetary union in 1873.
Austria-Hungary did join the LMU but never had its currency at par with the Franc. The Krone, introduced in 1892, was worth 5 Centimes more than an LMU unit.
In the Balkans many countries followed the French standards but not all of them were officially part of the LMU. Greece was a member but was suspended at some point for trying to debase its currency when its government spending ran out of control. History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
But the influence of the LMU went further. Many Latin American countries tied their Peso to the 5 Francs coin. Some even tried to introduce a Peseta or Franco at par with LMU currencies but these initiatives proved short-lived. Only Venezuela had its Bolivar at par with the French Franc. Its silver coins followed LMU specifications until 1960.
The LMU worked really well in an era of increasing international cooperation. It was also an era of significant human development. But it ended abruptly with the outbreak of World War I. With the exception of Switzerland all LMU countries suspended the convertibility to gold in order to finance the cost of war. Gold was hoarded and the coins started trading at a premium to banknotes or silver. At the end of the war, when it became clear the governments would not be able to repay their loans in gold, their currencies collapsed and silver coins disappeared as well. Only Switzerland continued to adhere to the old standards, but would eventually devalue in 1936 during the Great Depression.
The LMU was formally dissolved in 1927, but the effective end date was 1914, with silver coinage ceasing in 1920, with the exception of Switzerland of course. The last silver LMU coins were minted by this country in 1967.
The LMU even influenced the US. In 1873, the weight of silver coins other than the dollar were changed to metric standards. Starting in the 1870s, US silver coins had weights corresponding to a 25-gram 90% silver dollar (but silver dollars themselves were not changed to the metric standard).
Alright, I have way too many LMU types to dig out and photograph (or I'm maybe too lazy ) but anyway here are some of the ones I did get around to photographing today; I didn't include LMU standard coins from before 1867, or after 1927:
Belgium
I have less Belgian LMU era silver than I thought I did; having to collect both the French and Dutch types is kind of frustrating. Forgot to include my coppers here; but Belgian copper is not the same dimensions as French, Italian, Spanish LMU era copper.
Spain
Type collection from 1869-1939; I have basically completed the one of each type except the Provisional Government 20 Centimos, and the scarce Alfonso XIII 1894 2 Pesetas.
Italy
Another of my type collections; this one is much neater than the Spanish one, and also more complete in general (missing the Heraldic Eagle VEIII 1 and 2 Lire, as well as a few of the early VEII types). Otherwise I have completed a non-prova type set of the base denominations up to 25 centesimi; a silver 20 centesimi is coming for me as I type.
I'll photograph France later, I just can't be bothered to take them all out right now!
We shall definitely have to swap sometime for some of those Romanian doubles, it's a very underdeveloped part of my European collection 1815-1945. I never realised how much early Romanian coins resemble early Italian ones either!
@Monninen
Interesting you should bring that up; the last Swiss silver LMU dimensioned coins ended in 1967, exactly a century after the LMU was founded. You should also add issuers like Italian Eritrea to your list, if you are including colonial types like Tunisia under the French protectorate.
My probably favourite LMU coin is the Comoro Islands 5 Francs. No other silver coins were minted there.
I would buy it, if only it had a mintage larger than 2050. It usually costs about 1000€.
We shall definitely have to swap sometime for some of those Romanian doubles, it's a very underdeveloped part of my European collection 1815-1945. I never realised how much early Romanian coins resemble early Italian ones either!
@Monninen
Interesting you should bring that up; the last Swiss silver LMU dimensioned coins ended in 1967, exactly a century after the LMU was founded. You should also add issuers like Italian Eritrea to your list, if you are including colonial types like Tunisia under the French protectorate.
I would really love to swap with you, I miss a lot from you, but all the silver from Romania that I had as double I sold because in the photo, there are all my types, I collect only Romania by Year and also by Type, so I have no doubles in romanian silver because honestly every piece is at least 10€.
Got my French coins out and did a family photo by type:
The 20 centimes I used for the Ceres type is actually the 2nd Republic type from 1849-51; the 1878 and 1889 3rd Republic type is extremely rare with a mintage of 120, and probably something I will never own.
I don't have the energy to assemble my Swiss, Romanian, Greek, Austro-Hungarian, etc. coins out I'm afraid... don't have as much from those so never mind.
I don't know if these coins count as part of the LMU since in that monetary system one franc was equivalent to 5 grams of silver, but in the case of the Colombian peso one peso was equivalent to 25 grams of silver, so 20 cents (the coins in the image) would be equivalent to one franc, while 60 cents (the amount of cents in the coin) would be 3 francs since, remembering that one franc is 20 cents, there are 3 francs here. In case they do count as part of the LMU, they will remain here.
Just in case, the exposed part of the coins is not covered by the acrylic cases so that it would be seen well in the image due to how old this cell phone is (a Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime).
in this topic: https://es.numista.com/forum/topic160501.html#p1245751 I talk about something that does not make sense to the LMU (in this case with the Venezuelan Bolivar) in which the denomination of 5 bolivars (in this case 5 francs) is LEI 900 silver and the other silver coins are LEI 835 silver. That is, if I buy something with 5 bolivars (5 francs) I am giving more than if I buy something with 2 coins of 2 bolivars and 1 of a Bolivar (2 coins of 2 francs and 1 coin of a franc) since in theory I am giving 5 bolivars in both situations but with different purities, with a 5 bolivar coin am I giving more than if I buy with other silver coins?
Silver coins, everything up to and of 2 whatevers (Francs, Pesetas, Lira, Drachme etc) was usually 83.3% silver, but all the 5 coins (Francs, Lire etc) are 90% silver.
I bought around 20 crowns a year ago, all quite cheap and usually notorious for cleaning. I have about 6 x 5 Francs of France (Louis Phillippe - pre LMU), Napoleon III and 3rd republic, Italian 5 lira of Victor Emmanuelle, Spanish 5 pesetas of Amadeo and Alfonso XII and 5 Francs, Switzerland and Belgium (Leopold II).
I find the 5 Mark coins were heavier.
I also have a 2 Leu of Romania from 1912 which is 10 grams and were they in the LMU?
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
Wiki fact, Romania was never a signatory member, but had her new currency aligned since she was freed from the Ottoman Empire in 1877, and abandoned it with everyone else during WWI.
The question of why the 5 franc was specified .900 while all the smaller sizer were .835 must be asked of the original architects, it was true from the beginning. Previously the various countries had used .900 or better for most coins, and some were .800.
It was a design by committee, or by a room full of lawyers. This is how all laws and customs are made, compromises throughout.
Anyway, your observation that a five franc coin contains more silver than five one franc coins is true, but you are wrong that it does not make sense. It does not have to.
You are not giving over more when you buy a .900 coin than with the .835 coins, because you DID NOT PAY MORE for them when they came into your purse. the value is the face value, unless you decide to melt them and sell for scrap metal value.
This would be an error, if the price you could get for the scrap was less than the face value, regardless of the metal content. You could also pay with a paper bank note, which everyone realizes is worth nothing at all, absent its face value.
The commodity price of silver sometimes does exceed the face value of the coinage. When that happens the coins are immediately taken out of circulation and melted, and replaced with much smaller versions, or base metal tokens.
Jamais l'or n'a perdu la plus petite occasion de se montrer stupide. -Balzac
I don't disagree, the melt price of silver before 1914, was well below the face value of these coins.
America did it too, as the 10c to 50c were 90% silver like dollars, but a 50c weighed 12.5 grams, whilst a $1 weighed 26.73 grams not 25 grams.
It was just different to UK as we had coins that all correlated - but the UK had to be different of course. They eschewed the decimal craze in Europe. The Americans at least tried to tune their $4 Stella coin to the weights of European 20 Unit gold coins.
Think this Austrian 1912 coin was 10 grams and part of the Union too?
Napoleon 3, French 5 Francs, 1868
Romanian 2 Leu I mentioned, it weighs 9.98 grams (Slight loss from wear down to gVF)
Greek 1 drachma at the standard (Weight 5 grams)
Very holed and worn Spanish peseta from 1870 that states 200 make 1 kilo, so its 5 grams the standard of the LMU.
It was issued after Isabella had abdicated and before Amadeo came along.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
Finally Switzerland made 5 Franc coins to the LMU standard until the early 1920s
This 1889 5 franc coin was 25 grams (24.94 now as its a bit worn)
But in 1922, they dropped the 5 Francs down to 15 grams but kept all the others at standard. Mainly as there was a minor price hike in the silver price in 1919/1920 that many countries either ignored, switched to base metal like the French Chambre de Commerce bon Pour tokens and Italian “Buono da Lire” coins - or just did reductions in size and/or purity (Us British went to 50% and Canada went to 80%) - but prices dropped in 1921 and silver was more affordable.
My selection of Swiss silver, notice how the 5 Francs of the post 1922 type are not that much larger than 2 Francs.
In 1967/68 they switched to muck metals and the weight dropped slightly despite size being the same, I think the 1 Franc is like 4.2 grams and 2 francs 8.4 and 5 Francs about 13 grams now.
Still the Swiss 5 Franc is the highest circulating face value coin I know of. Our weak dollar means the coin is worth $11.25 our money.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
And with the LMU, I see something called "Gresham's Law," which states that "bad money replaces good." This means that when the silver price fell, people tended to withdraw 5-franc coins (with a higher fine silver content) from circulation to hoard them and/or melt them down to earn more for less.
An unfavorable situation in the LMU is that, in one example, a trader wants to exchange his 700-gram silver ingot of 900 millesimal purity at a bank for silver coins, but receives pure silver coins of 835 millesimal purity. Therefore, he would be receiving less silver content in the coins than the ingot he exchanged, but in "practice," he received the same value as the ingot.
It was entirely possible, and in fact commercially unfavorable for the person delivering the silver. If you carried 700 g of pure silver in the form of an ingot with a purity of 0.900, that equivalent could be converted into fractional coins—for example, 2 F or 1 F coins with a purity of 0.835—which would have the same face value, but not the same silver content. This type of transaction involved a subtle loss of the metal, even though the fiat value was the same.
A schematic of this would be:
You contain about 630 g of pure silver (700 g × 0.900). If you exchange it for, say, 1-franc coins of 0.835 purity: each coin contains 5 g × 0.835 = 4.175 g of pure silver.
To obtain 630 g of pure silver, you would need approximately 151 1 F coins (630 / 4.175 ≈ 151 F). But those 151 coins add up to only 151 nominal francs. If the ingot's value was equivalent to 157 F (700 / 5 g = 140 nominal 5 F coins), you would be receiving less silver in terms of metallic content, despite receiving an equivalent nominal amount.
This clearly reflects an implicit loss of silver, even if the nominal values were respected. Although there is no textual complaint from a merchant explaining "I received less silver by exchanging my 0.900 ingot for 0.835 coins," the economic logic of the system clearly allows for this.
To avoid these disadvantages and speculation, measures such as:
Limitations on free coinage: Starting in 1874, the conversion of silver into coins was limited. In 1878, silver coinage was completely suspended, effectively switching to the gold standard.
Reduction of purity in some countries to discourage hoarding or melting of small coins.
Although there is no textual complaint from a merchant explaining "I received less silver when exchanging my 0.900 ingot for 0.835 coins," the economic logic of the system clearly allows for this:
Equal nominal value ≠ equal silver content: Exchanging, for example, an ingot valued at 700 g × 0.900 purity for 0.835 coins creates a discrepancy in the pure silver received, something that affected the professional who expected physical, not just nominal, equivalence.
Disincentive to mint silver: The system acted to stem precisely this loss, limiting and then suspending silver minting.
In short, yes, there was that risk: receiving less pure silver for the same face value. This was one of the weakest points of the system, and one of the reasons why silver coinage was eventually limited and the move toward a more gold-oriented standard was made.
And with the LMU, I see something called "Gresham's Law," which states that "bad money replaces good." This means that when the silver price fell, people tended to withdraw 5-franc coins (with a higher fine silver content) from circulation to hoard them and/or melt them down to earn more for less.
That may also explain why some of the poorer and more marginal countries like Spain, Italy, Greece etc - stopped minting 5 whatevers silver crowns after the 1870s boom or just minted infrequently.
The LMU even spread to Chile until 1891, when they debased their coins as the enemy of Hispanic nations crept in - “Inflaccion”
This coin is 25 grams and 90% silver - the same as a 5 pesetas, francs, drachmas etc. They had this ratio since 1867 and some of the lower value coins got base by 1880, yet these were valid at least until 1891.
The exchange rate was a Latin American Peso was like a silver dollar and thus 5 of the LMU units.
I already had the 50 centavos for several years and its 90% silver and 12.5 grams - how coincidental.
This would add a new denomination into LMU coins, as the Europeans had 2 units and 50 centavo/½ pesos would equate to 2.5 European units, a denomination not minted.
I also suspect Peruvian sols from 1868 to 1917 were also LMU pieces at 25 grams and 90% oro fino (Fine silver)
The coin says “9 Decimos Fino” or 9 tenths fine.
They made these sols until the 1930s when a base metal brass coin came out, but post WW1 coins say “5 decimos fino” or debased to half silver. You stop getting fine silver coins in Latin America after WW1, unless they shrink in size or they increase denomination like a 5 Peso coin of Chile from 1927, instead of a single peso etc.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
) but anyway here are some of the ones I did get around to photographing today; I didn't include LMU standard coins from before 1867, or after 1927:
