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The term ''écu'' () or crown may refer to one of several French
coin A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order t ...
s. The first ''écu'' was a
gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
coin (the ''écu d'or'') minted during the reign of Louis IX of France, in 1266. ''Écu'' (from
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
''scutum'') means shield, and the coin was so called because its design included the
coat of arms of France A coat typically is an outer garment for the upper body as worn by either gender for warmth or fashion. Coats typically have long sleeves and are open down the front and closing by means of buttons, zippers, hook-and-loop fasteners, toggles, ...
. The word is related to
Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
'' escut'',
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
'' scudo'' or Castilian ''
escudo The escudo ( Portuguese: 'shield') is a unit of currency historically used in Portugal and its colonies in South America, Asia, and Africa. It was originally worth 16 silver . The Cape Verdean escudo and the former Portuguese escudo (PTE), eac ...
''. The value of the ''écu'' varied considerably over time, and
silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...
coins (known as ''écu d'argent'') were also introduced.


History


Origin

When Louis IX took the throne, France still used small silver deniers, which had circulated since the time of Charlemagne to the exclusion of larger silver or gold coins. Over the years, French kings had granted numerous nobles and bishops the right to strike coins and their “feudal” coinages competed with the royal coinage. Venice and Florence had already shown that there was demand for larger silver and gold coins and in 1266 Louis IX sought an advantage for the royal coinage by expanding it in these areas. His gold écu d'or showed a shield strewn with fleur-de-lis, which was the coat of arms of the kings of France at the time. These coins were valued as if gold was worth only 10 times as much as silver, an unrealistic ratio which
Edward III of England Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring ...
had unsuccessfully tried to use. It failed again, Louis IX’s silver coins were a great success but his gold was not accepted at this rate and his successor discontinued gold coinage.


Écu d'or

Philip IV reintroduced gold coinage to France in 1296 and began a sequence of extravagantly designed but rapidly changing types. These coins were generally named for their obverse design, and the écu a la chaise which Philip VI introduced in 1337 showed a shield with the coat of arms of the kings of France beside the seated king. Philip VI spent vast quantities of these coins subsidizing his allies in the Netherlands at the outset of the Hundred Years' War, and this coin was widely copied in the Netherlands. Charles VI ended the practice of frequently changing gold coin designs (but not that of tampering with their weight and value) with his écu à la couronne in 1385. This is again named after the shield on the obverse, which now has a crown above it and the modern coat of arms of the kings of France with three fleur-de-lis. Charles VI’s father had scored major gains against the English but had passed the cost on to his children. The government of the child Charles VI abandoned his father's sound money policy by replacing his gold franc ''à cheval''. The new ''écu à la couronne'' weighed less than the franc but its value was increased from one
livre LIVRE (, L), previously known as LIVRE/Tempo de Avançar (, L/TDA), is a green political party in Portugal founded in 2014. Its founding principles are ecology, universalism, freedom, equity, solidarity, socialism and Europeanism. Its symbol i ...
, i.e. 20 sous, for the franc to 22 sous 6 deniers (i.e. 22.5 sous) for the ''écu''. Not only was this a devaluation, but while the franc had been identified with its valuation of one livre the valuation of the ''écu à la couronne'' was subject to manipulation. In 1475, Louis XI created a variant of the ''écu à la couronne'' called an écu au soleil because the Sun now appeared above the shield. The process of devaluation continued. In 1515 the ''écu au soleil'' was valued at 36¾ sous, but this was increased to 45 sous by 1547 even though its weight and fineness had been decreased in 1519. The ''écu'' design continued, essentially unchanged, on French gold coins until 1640 when the louis d’or replaced it. In the second half of the 1500s gold and silver imported from Spanish America impacted the French economy, but the king of France was not getting much of the new wealth. He responded by revaluing the ''écu d’or'' in stages from 45 sous in 1547 to 60 sous, i.e. 3
livres 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 gr ...
, in 1577. This exacerbated the inflation caused by the increase in the supply of gold and silver, and the Estates General, which met at Blois in 1576, added to the public pressure to stop currency manipulation. In 1577,
Henri III Henry III (french: Henri III, né Alexandre Édouard; pl, Henryk Walezy; lt, Henrikas Valua; 19 September 1551 – 2 August 1589) was King of France from 1574 until his assassination in 1589, as well as King of Poland and Grand Duke of L ...
agreed to stabilize the ''écu d’or'' at 3 livres tournois and to adopt a new monetary system with prices quoted in ''écus''. As part of this system, he introduced quarter and eighth ''écu'' coins struck in silver. The types of quarter and eighth ''écus d'argent'' paralleled those of the ''écu d’or'', with the royal arms on the obverse and a cross on the reverse. For the first time in French history, these coins had a mark of value, with IIII or VIII placed on either side of the shield. Royal coins struck at mints in
Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...
and Béarn added local heraldry to the fleur-de-lis of France. Feudal coinages at
Bouillon Bouillon can refer to: Food * Bouillon (broth), a simple broth ** Court-bouillon, a quick broth * Bouillon (soup), a Haitian soup * Bouillon (restaurant), a traditional type of French restaurant **Bouillon Chartier, a bouillon restaurant foun ...
and Sedan, Château-Renaud, and
Rethel Rethel () is a commune in the Ardennes department in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture and third-most important city and economic center in the department. It is situated on the river Aisne, near the northern border of Champagne and 37 ...
also struck quarter ''écus'', with their own arms replacing the royal arms. By the 17th century this ''écu d’or'' would rise in value from 3 to more than 5 livres, while the hammered silver quarter ''écu'' struck until 1646 would rise in value from 15 sols to 1 livre.


Silver Louis or écu of 1641

This still did not give France a coin which could compete with the thalers which were popular in Germany. Moreover, French coins were still made by hand, so precious metal could be illegally shaved from the edges of the coins before passing them on. Finally, the ''écu d’or'' was made of 23 carat gold, which was not the international standard.
Louis XIII Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown ...
fixed all this. He installed coinage making machinery in the Paris mint and replaced the ''écu d’or'' with the
Louis d'or The Louis d'or () is any number of French coins first introduced by Louis XIII in 1640. The name derives from the depiction of the portrait of King Louis on one side of the coin; the French royal coat of arms is on the reverse. The coin was rep ...
in 1640. In 1641 he introduced a thaler-sized silver coin originally called a ''Louis d’argent'', issued at 9 to a French Mark of silver, 11/12 fine (24.93 g fine silver), and valued at three ''livres tournois'' - the same value in which the écu ''d’or'' was stabilized in 1577. This new 3-livres coin also came to be called an ''écu''.


Silver écu of 1726

From 1690 to 1725 rates were unstable, resulting in the discontinuation of the ''Louis d'argent'' in favor of the new silver ''écu''. In 1726 it was first issued at issued 8.3 to a French Mark of silver, 11/12 fine (or 27.03 g fine silver), and valued at six ''livres tournois''. The silver ''écu'' was further broken down into a value coin (''huitième d'écu''), a value coin (the ''quart d'écu'') and a value coin (the ''demi-écu''). All had the king's bust on the obverse and the royal coat of arms on the reverse. This silver écu was known as the ''laubthaler'' in Germany. It circulated in Southern Germany at 2.8
South German gulden The South German Gulden was the currency of the states of southern Germany between 1754 and 1873. These states included Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg, Frankfurt and Hohenzollern. It was divided into 60 kreuzer, with each kreuzer worth 4 pfennig o ...
. In Switzerland it was worth four Berne livres or four
francs The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centu ...
of the Helvetic Republic.Berne: ecu de 6 livres francais = 4 francs. https://books.google.fr/books?id=MV0OAAAAQAAJ&pg=PR26#v=onepage&q&f=false For more on the 17th-18th centuries currency system, see
Louis d'or The Louis d'or () is any number of French coins first introduced by Louis XIII in 1640. The name derives from the depiction of the portrait of King Louis on one side of the coin; the French royal coat of arms is on the reverse. The coin was rep ...
,
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 ...
and
Italian scudo The ''scudo'' (pl. ''scudi'') was the name for a number of coins used in various states in the Italian peninsula until the 19th century. The name, like that of the French écu and the Spanish and Portuguese escudo, was derived from the Latin ''scu ...
.


French Revolution

The silver ''écu'' disappeared during the
French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
and was swapped for
French franc The franc (, ; sign: F or Fr), also commonly distinguished as the (FF), was a currency of France. Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money. It w ...
s at the rate of 6 livres = 6/1.0125 or 5.93 francs. At 4.5 g fine silver per franc this implied each écu contained only 26.66 g fine silver. But the 5-franc silver coins minted throughout the 19th century were just a continuation of the old ''écus'', and were often still called ''écu'' by French people. The ''écu'', as it existed immediately before the
French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
, was approximately equivalent (in terms of purchasing power) to 24
euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...
or 30
U.S. dollars The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
in 2017.


References in novels

The Count of Monte Cristo (Penguin Classics - by Alexandre Dumas -translated by Robin Buss) “The speculators were the richer by eight hundred thousand écus.” (Page 179)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ecu Coins of France Modern obsolete currencies Economic history of the Ancien Régime Medieval currencies 1266 establishments in Europe 1260s establishments in France