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
Cross of Gold speech caused by the Napoleonic Wars caused United States gold coins to be worth more as bullion than as money, and they vanished from circulation. Governmental response to this shortage was hampered by the fact that officials did not clearly understand what had happened. In 1830, Treasury Secretary Samuel D. Ingham proposed adjusting the ratio between gold and silver in US currency to 15.8:1, which had for some time been the ratio in Europe. It was not until 1834 that Congress acted, changing the gold/silver ratio to 16.002:1. This was close enough to the market value to make it uneconomic to