Tripoli gold bezant in Arabic 1270 1300 Tripoli silver gros 1275 1287

A gros was a type of silver coinage of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

from the time of Saint Louis. There were ''gros tournois'' and ''gros parisis''.''The Cambridge Economic History of Europe: Trade and industry in the Middle Ages'' by Edward Miller, Michael Moïssey Postan, Cynthia Postan p.822
/ref> The ''gros'' was sub-divided in ''half gros'' and ''quarter gros''. The original gros created by St Louis weighed about 4.52 g of nearly pure silver, and was valued at one sou, that is 12 deniers or 1/20 of a

livre tournois The (; ; abbreviation: ₶.) was one of numerous currencies used in medieval France, and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in Early Modern France. The 1262 monetary reform established the as 20 , or 80.88 g ...

. Unlike the gold

écu The term ''écu'' () or crown may refer to one of several French coins. The first ''écu'' was a gold coin (the ''écu d'or'') minted during the reign of Louis IX of France, in 1266. ''Écu'' (from Latin ''scutum'') means shield, and the coin ...

that was

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in small numbers, mostly for prestige reasons, the gros was a very common coin, and very widely copied by non royal mints.

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