Sous 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 grams of fine silver. The was a gold coin of one minted in large numbers from 1360.
In 1549, the was decreed a unit of account, and in 1667 it officially replaced the .
In 1720, the was redefined as 0.31 grams of pure gold, and in 1726, in a devaluation under Louis XV, as 4.50516 grams of fine silver.
It was the basis of the revolutionary French franc of 1795, defined as 4.5 grams of fine silver exactly.

Circulating currency

In France, the was worth 240 deniers (the "Tours penny"). The latter were initially minted by the abbey of Saint Martin in the Touraine region of France. Soon after Philip II of France seized the counties of Anjou and Touraine in 1203 and standardized the use of the there, the began to supersede the (Paris pound) which had been up to that point the official currency of the Capetian dynasty.

The was, in common with the original livre of Charlemagne, divided into 20 ( after 1715), each of which was divided into 12 deniers.

Between 1360 and 1641, coins worth one were minted, known as (the name coming from the inscription , []). Other francs were minted under Charles V of France, Charles V, Henry III of France, Henry III and Henry IV of France, Henry IV. The use of the name "franc" became a synonym for in accounting.

The first French paper money, issued between 1701 and 1720, was denominated in (see "Standard Catalog of World Paper Money", Albert Pick). This was the last time the name was used officially, as later notes and coins were denominated simply in , the having finally been abolished in 1667.

Accounting currency

With many forms of domestic and international money (with different weights, purities and quality) circulating throughout Europe in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period, the use of an ''accounting currency'' became a financial necessity. In the world of international banking of the 13th century, it was the florin and ducat that were often used. In France, the and the currency system based on it became a standard monetary unit of accounting and continued to be used even when the ceased to exist as an actual coin. For example, the Louisiana Purchase treaty of 1803 specified the relative ratios of the franc, dollar and .

The official use of the accounting unit in all contracts in France was legislated in 1549, but it had been one of the standard units of accounting in France since the 13th century. In 1577 the accounting unit was officially abolished and accountants switched to the écu, which was at that time the major French gold coin in actual circulation, but in 1602 the accounting unit was brought back. (A monetary unit of accounting based on the continued to be used for minor uses in and around Paris and was not officially abolished until 1667 by Louis XIV).

Since coins in Europe in the Middle Ages and the Early modern period (the French écu, Louis, teston d'argent, denier, double, franc; the Spanish doubloon, pistole, real; the Italian florin, ducat or sequin; the German and Austrian thaler; the Dutch gulden, etc.) did not have any indication of their value, their official value was determined by royal edicts. In cases of financial need, French kings could use the official value for currency devaluation. This could be done in two ways: (1) the amount of precious metal in a newly minted French coin could be reduced while nevertheless maintaining the old value in or (2) the official value of a domestic or foreign coin in circulation could be increased. By reversing these techniques, currencies could be reinforced.

For example:
* the worth of an écu d'or, a French gold coin, was changed from 60 to 57 sols in 1573.
* to curb increasing use of the Spanish real, its official worth was decreased to 4 sols 2 deniers in the 1570s.

Royal finance officers faced many difficulties. In addition to currency speculation, forgery and the intentional shaving of precious metal from coins (which was harshly punished), they had the difficult problem of setting values for gold, silver, copper and billon coins, responding to the often large influx of foreign coin and the appearance of inferior foreign coins of intentionally similar design. For more on these issues, see Monetary policy and Gresham's Law.

Unicode symbol

A glyph for the was added to Unicode 5.2, in the Currency Symbols block at code point U+20B6.

See also

* French franc#History
* Louis (coin)
*Luxembourgish livre
*Écu (coin)
*Roman currency

{{Portal bar, France, Money, Numismatics

Coins of France
Economic history of the Ancien Régime