Figure19-12The Road to the Euro The exchange rate between the French franc and the German mark tells the tale of Europe’s long march to a common currency. European nations made several attempts to fix exchange rates in the 1970s and 1980s. The first two attempts failed, but from 1987 on they were mostly successful. The exchange rate was “locked” in the late 1990s, and at the end of 2001 the franc and the mark were replaced by the euro. Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.