Denier Tournois - Louis IX

Louis IX standardized the denier tournois across the royal domain as part of a deliberate monetary policy designed to displace baronial coinages — particularly those of the great lords who had long issued competing currencies. The Tours mint, which gave the coin its name, had been brought under Capetian control in 1204, and Louis exploited it aggressively. By the time of his death on crusade in 1270, the tournois had become the dominant silver denomination in northern France, a position it would hold for generations.