Denier Tournois - Louis XIII Lyon, 3rd type

The Denier Tournois was a deliberately low-prestige coin — a fiduciary copper issue whose face value had no meaningful relationship to its metal content, kept in circulation because small change was chronically scarce in provincial France. Lyon was among the most active minting cities for this type, serving the dense commercial traffic of the Rhône corridor. The 3rd type revision came early in Louis XIII's personal reign, before Richelieu's influence, when monetary administration remained contested between the crown and regional minting authorities.

CGKL#364 distinguishes this emission from the superficially similar 2nd type by subtle differences in the fleur-de-lis arrangement — details that only matter because contemporary counterfeit deniers flooded the same markets.