100 Francs / 15 ECUs St. Mark's Cathedral, Venice

This piece belongs to a French commemorative series pairing franc denominations with ECU equivalents during the final years before the euro made both obsolete. The ECU — European Currency Unit — was never physical coinage in general circulation but a basket currency used in European financial settlement, and France's decision to denominate collector issues in ECUs was partly political: a deliberate nod toward monetary union while the Maastricht Treaty ratification debates were still raw.

The choice of San Marco reflects a longstanding Monnaie de Paris practice of issuing European landmark series throughout the 1990s, none of which were legal tender outside France.