1 Groschen Tournois

Frankfurt's municipal coinage in this period operated under the monetary framework of the Holy Roman Empire while the city jealously guarded its minting privileges — rights that came under recurring pressure from imperial authorities throughout the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The tournois denomination itself was a deliberate adoption of the old French gros tournois tradition, by then long absorbed into the Rhine valley commercial vocabulary. Frankfurt's position as the site of the imperial trade fairs made small silver of this type essential working currency, passing through the hands of merchants from across the empire twice annually.