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Double Tournois - Francis I 4th type
| Issuer | France |
|---|---|
| Year | 1540-1547 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 0.66 g |
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| Obverse description | Two fleurs-de-lis arranged side by side in the central field, a characteristic device of the French royal coinage of the period. The surrounding Latin legend reads D FRANCISCVS D G R L, identifying Francis I as King of France by the grace of God. The flan is irregular in shape, typical of hammered coinage of this era, and the strike is somewhat weak at the periphery. The design is rendered in a simple, flat relief consistent with small-denomination billon issues of the mid-sixteenth century. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Francis I introduced this fourth type of the double tournois late in his reign, a period consumed by the Italian Wars and mounting fiscal pressure from decades of conflict with Charles V. The billon content of small divisional coinage was routinely debased during these years as the crown extracted what metal value it could from the circulating currency without resorting to outright token issues.
The Gadoury rarity rating of R1 indicates genuine scarcity — not collector inflation. Ciani's silence on this type suggests it fell outside the scope of his corpus or that attributable examples were simply too few to classify with confidence.