From the archives: The Latin Monetary Union
May 6, 2026 | Featured
For numismatists, the birth of a single European currency is an opportunity to recall a historical precedent: the so-called Latin Monetary Union experience.
It has become customary to call the monetary convention concluded on December 23, 1865 between Belgium, France, Italy and Switzerland, a convention to which Greece also acceded on October 8, 1868, the Latin Monetary Union, or Latin Union. This convention remained in force, subject to several adjustments, until January 1, 1927.
Drawing a parallel between what financial specialists have already called the Euroland and the Latin Union is naturally appealing, but it also overestimates the scope of what the latter was.
From Coins and Canada