The europa was a token coinage created in 1928 by , a politician and industrialist from the

Nièvre Nièvre () is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, central-east France. Named after the river Nièvre, it had a population of 204,452 in 2019.France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. The currency was promoted by , the elected deputy for the

Haute-Loire Haute-Loire (; oc, Naut Léger or ''Naut Leir''; English: Upper Loire) is a landlocked department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of south-central France. Named after the Loire River, it is surrounded by the departments of Loire, Ardèche ...

who, along with Archer, was an influential figure in the European federalist movement. The coins were minted in the name of a hypothetical "Federated States of Europe" (''États fédérés d'Europe''). Unlike contemporary currencies based on the

gold standard A gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the early 1920s, and from the la ...

, the europa was intended to derive its notional value from its value in labour. The currency never circulated except unofficially between federalists of the Nièvre region. Two denominations were produced, both depicting

Louis Pasteur Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization, the latter of which was named afte ...

and a map of Europe on the

obverse and reverse Obverse and its opposite, reverse, refer to the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags, seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, '' ...

respectively: one valued at 1 europa and another at 1/10 of a europa.

External links

{{commonscat, Europa (coinage)
Joseph Archer imaginait l'Europe avant tout le monde
in ''

Le Journal de Saône-et-Loire ''Le Journal de Saône-et-Loire'' is a French provincial Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper for readers of the Saône-et-Loire ''Departments of France, département''. Its headquarters are in Chalon-sur-Saône and it is printed in Chatenoy-le-Roya ...

'' History of the European Union Currencies of Europe 1928 in France Currencies introduced in 1928 Proposed currencies

Further reading

External links