The Franc affair prompted the 1929 International Convention for the Suppression of Counterfeiting Currency and expanded the role of the International Criminal Police Commission.
Key Facts
- Forged notes produced
- 25,000 to 35,000 banknotes of 1,000 francs
- Distribution location
- Netherlands, December 1925
- Conspirators tried
- 24 tried in Budapest, May 1926
- Plot initiated
- 1922, by Prince Lajos Windischgraetz
- Convention adopted
- April 1929, International Counterfeiting Convention
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Following World War I, Hungary lost large portions of its territory and population through treaties widely regarded as unjust, fueling strong nationalist and irredentist sentiment. This environment led figures such as Prince Lajos Windischgraetz to pursue schemes aimed at damaging France economically and funding internal coups and territorial revisionism.
Beginning in 1922, Hungarian nationalists including Windischgraetz conspired to counterfeit the French franc, drawing on forging equipment linked to an earlier unrealized German scheme. With support from high-ranking military and civilian officials, they produced tens of thousands of forged notes before attempting to circulate them in the Netherlands in December 1925, where they were swiftly caught.
Twenty-four conspirators received largely light sentences in a trial widely believed to reflect deliberate concealment by Prime Minister István Bethlen. Internationally, the scandal accelerated the adoption of the 1929 International Convention for the Suppression of Counterfeiting Currency and formalized the operational role of the International Criminal Police Commission.