The final franc note cashes in on Cezanne

Paul Cezanne's father would, finally, have been proud of him. The great Impressionist, who refused to follow his papa into banking, has been chosen as the theme of the last French bank-note. From next Monday week, the Bank of France will issue a new, hi-tech 100-franc note featuring a portrait of Cezanne and details from two of his paintings, The card- players and Apples and biscuits.

The design, the subject of two false starts and much discussion, will survive for four-and-a-half years before the franc is merged into the European single currency, the euro. It will be the last of a long and ornate line going back to the creation of the franc in 1795 and the first franc notes in 1796.

Originally, the Bank of France intended to honour the Lumiere brothers, inventors of cinema. They were cut from the script when it was pointed out they had sympathised with the Vichy regime during the Second World War. The second plan was to honour the painter Henri Matisse. His surviving relatives objected, pointing out that he had always detested money.

Finally, Cezanne was chosen, ahead of the singer Edith Piaf and the writer Colette. The new note (worth roughly pounds 10) will join a series with the 50-franc note (starring the writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the 200-franc (Gustave Eiffel) and the 500-franc note (Pierre and Marie Curie).

One painter replaces another. The present 100-franc note, the only one in the world to show a half-naked woman, celebrates Eugene Delacroix. It includes an approximate reproduction of his painting of a bare-breasted woman leading a revolutionary charge.

The governor of the Banque de France, Jean-Claude Trichet, defended - on three counts - the decision to introduce a new note in the late evening of the franc's life.

The 100-franc note, the most commonly used one, survives for a maximum of 15 months in circulation in any case. The use of new technologies makes the Cezanne design cheaper to print and 10 times harder to counterfeit.

There is an unspoken, fourth reason. France is in competition with other countries for a contract to print some of the euro notes which will replace the currencies of up to 11 EU countries from 1 July 2002.

The production of the new Cezanne note, incorporating a supposedly unfakeable new form of metallic security band, is a French down-payment on a licence to print euros.