This study explores inflation expectations among French students in a post economic crisis context. The aim of this paper is to assess the level of inflation intrinsically associates with the representation of the euro and understand whether economic background and knowledge can influence this representation. We argue that understanding the representation of the euro as currency and how laypeople reason through monetary illusion is required in order to define a more effective monetary policy. We used a survey questionnaire which requires answers over a free association task, an economic knowledge questionnaire and a socio-demographic questionnaire. The data was collected between November 2014 and May 2015. We found that the social representation of the euro is stable and formed by the words “money” and “cash”. The euro appears to be the support of daily life transactions. However, we noticed differences in the peripheral zones among participants' economic background and knowledge. These differences highlight issues such as monetary policy communication during a crisis, citizens' trust in central banks, and also draw attention to the polymorphic definition of money in social sciences and in daily life.