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Denier Tournois - Francis I 2nd type
| Issuer | France |
|---|---|
| Year | 1575 |
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| Reference(s) | Dy royales#873, Ciani#1194, LP#733 |
| Obverse description | Within a trilobe (trefoil) inner border, a single fleur-de-lis to the left and a dolphin to the right are depicted in the field, rendered in the crude style typical of hammered billon deniers of the French royal series. A circular outer legend in Latin surrounds the central design, separated by a beaded or plain inner boundary. The devices are characteristic of the Dauphin coinage tradition associated with the French crown. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | SIT.NOMEN.DN.BENEDITVM (Translation: Blessed be the name of the Lord.) |
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| Additional information |
The denier tournois had been struck at Tours since the Capetian period, but by 1575 the coin was a ghost of its medieval self — debased so thoroughly over successive reigns that billon had long since displaced any meaningful silver content. Francis I's second type reflects a mid-sixteenth-century attempt to regularize the petty coinage system amid the fiscal pressures of the Italian Wars, which drained the royal treasury across nearly four decades of intermittent campaigning.
Ciani 1194 and Duplessy 873 treat this as a distinct emission from the first type on the basis of minor legend differences traceable to specific mint workshops.