Paper for Gold

A peasant trundled his cart in from the suburbs of Lyons last week. The cart was heavy. Beneath a load of warm manure nestled 110 pounds of golden 20-franc pieces done up in sacks. Arrived at the Bank of France the peasant, Jacques Brosson, winnowed out his sacks of gold, exchanged them for 730,000 paper francs, hired a taxi, returned home to hoard paper which he believed would soon appreciate.

All over France similar scenes. . .

The cause?

The Bank of France and its subsidiaries have recently begun to purchase gold with paper francs at approximately the rate prevailing throughout international exchange.

Hitherto--since 1916--it has been illegal to barter paper francs for gold francs in France on any other basis than the legal fiction that one gold franc (always worth 19.3 cents or more) was worth one paper franc (once worth as little as 2.08 cents [TIME, July 26]).