Currency of Venezuela at the Royal Mint, London: Franco = 2 Reales = 20 Centavos Peso = 5 Francos = 10 Reales = 100 Centavos The monetary law of March 30, 1848 established the French franc ("franco frances"), 5·00 g, 0·900 fine, as the monetary unit of Venezuela. No detailed explanation was provided—presumably, the new government wanted to make a clean break with the policies of the conservative oligarchy ("Oligarquía Conservadora", 1830–1848) that it replaced. A table of coin ratings expressed in francos was published, and the Franco was declared equal to 20-centavos of the copper coins authorized between 1834 and 1842. Liberty-head
SWAG (silver, wine, art and gold) SWAG (silver, wine, art and gold) SWAG is an asset class comprising silver, wine, art and gold, identified by economist Joe Roseman in his 2011 "Investment Week" article, "SWAG: The Industry's Latest Acronym". He describes these as transportable and easy to store physical assets with no income stream (and so no exposure to income tax) and no incumbent debt, whose performance appears unrelated to the performance of equity markets; and he notes that none of these factors would be affected by sovereign default. Because of their scarcity, desirability, durability and stability and the independence of their price from stock market