Denier Tournois - Henri IV Lyon, Type A

The denier tournois was revived under Henri IV as part of a broader effort to stabilize petty coinage after decades of monetary disorder during the Wars of Religion, when small copper issues had been debased, counterfeited, and hoarded out of circulation across much of France. Lyon's mint was among the more productive under this reform program, its position on major trade routes keeping demand for low-denomination copper consistently high.

Type A of this Lyon emission is distinguished from the subsequent Type B by the arrangement of the mint mark and the form of the cross — details catalogued under CGKL#206a versus 206b.