Continuing use of francs

[Jean Dervin]

A friend has expressed surprise at still finding prices displayed in francs (obviously as a euro equivalent).  This is near the Swiss border.  Can't say that I've seen it myself, but would welcome comments.

[Chantal Savignat]

Yes,

"je vais prendre des sous"

"maman tu n'aurais pas des sous"

"gagner des sous"

but maybe it's because my parents used this word, so I use it too.

[Jean Dervin]

Thanks for that.  I'm glad to know that the word hasn't disappeared in colloquial usage.  But does it have any continuing literal sense?  In the UK, after decimalisation, the old nicknames for coins vanished.  And that was even though the unit of currency (the pound) remained the same.  Do any of the euro coins have names in French? 

[Chantal Savignat]

no, it doesn't persist as the name of a part of euro.

I think it disappeared with the "nouveaux francs". I never heard "sou" as the name of a coin. I was a child in seventies.

for "nouveaux francs" the smallest unit was "centime".

For the euro it is "cent" but French often say "centime" for euro coins. The two words are close.

[Jean Dervin]

Once upon a time, a sou was a five-centimes coin.  With inflation, the centime effectively vanished.  In 1960, with the revaluation of the franc, the centime reappeared.  As far as I recall, there was a five new centimes coin (formerly five old francs).  It was virtually useless, anyway.  I do not recall that anyone referred to this as a "sou", but there may be someone on this forum who can comment.