Bourgeois Fort - Philippe IV

The Bourgeois Fort was introduced by Philippe IV as part of his aggressive monetary manipulation program — the same campaign of debasement and revaluation that helped finance his destruction of the Templar Order and his prolonged conflicts with Flanders and the papacy. By 1311 the French monetary system had been through repeated alterations in just a few years, and the billon coinage bore the brunt of it, with fineness adjusted repeatedly to extract seigniorage from a population that had little recourse.

The "Fort" designation distinguished it from the earlier, lighter Bourgeois Simple struck at a lower silver content.