1 ounce = 28·35 grammes; 1 grain = 6·48 centigrammes.
100 kilos of wheat = 3·53 bushels, at 62-1/2 lb.
100 litres (1 hectolitre) of wheat = 2·75 bushels.
7 fr. duty on 100 kilos wheat = 2 fr. a bushel or 12s. 4d. a quarter.
1 bushel = 36·4 litres.
Money
The monetary unit is the Franc, practically the same as the old livre, somewhat less. According to the original plan, the Republican franc was to be 10 grammes weight, so that the decimal harmony of the system should not be disturbed. But financial expediency required it to be of about the same weight as before, so 80 old livres were recoined as 81 francs at 5 grammes weight and 0·900 fineness. The franc was to be of 100 centimes instead of 20 sous of 4 liards.
The copper coins, changed to bronze in about 1854, are pieces of 10 and 5 centimes, the latter equivalent to the old sou, so that the franc is commonly called a 20-sou piece, and the other silver coins, nominally of 5, 2, and 1/2 franc, are called in the same way pièces de cent sous, quarante sous and dix sous. The centime is so rarely seen as to be practically non-existent, and the decimal system not allowing the half or quarter of the 5-centime piece or sou, great inconvenience is felt by the poor,[[53]] yet the symmetry of the system has been marred by the issue of nickel quarter-francs, of a size which makes them often undistinguishable from francs. But this is 25 centimes, while the half-sou would be written 2·5 centimes, marring the symmetry of the centime column in accounts—where practically it would never appear.
Since the adoption of a gold standard under the second Empire, the gold 20-franc piece is the standard of exchange, and of payments in trade. It weighs 6·451 grammes = 99·5635 grains; it is of 0·900 fineness (= 22-1/5 carats) and thus contains 86·6071 grains of pure gold. Its exchange value is usually 15s. 10-1/2d., our sovereign being equal to 25 francs 20 centimes.
The system of international currency has led to the French currency containing coins, both gold and silver, of strange devices, and the necessity of placards in shops showing figures of the numerous coins which should not be accepted. Considerable vigilance is necessary to avoid taking coins not current, or taking for francs the nickel five-sou pieces scarcely distinguishable from them except in a good light.