Denier Tournois with crosslet - Francis I 2nd type

Francis I spent much of his reign in financial crisis, funding repeated Italian campaigns and, after 1525, an enormous ransom to Charles V following his capture at Pavia. The denier tournois was the lowest denomination in everyday use, and successive debasements across the 1530s and 1540s reduced its silver content to near-negligible levels — the .059 fineness of this second type reflecting fiscal exhaustion rather than any minting reform.

The "tournois" lineage traces to the abbey of Saint-Martin de Tours, whose monetary authority was absorbed by the French crown centuries earlier. By Francis's reign the name was purely conventional.