Franc à Pied - Charles V

Introduced by royal ordinance on 20 April 1365, the Franc à Pied took its name directly from its purpose: it was struck to pay the ransom installments owed to Edward III of England following John II's capture at Poitiers in 1356. The coin's face value of one livre tournois was deliberately chosen so that a single piece could settle exactly one franc of ransom debt — the word "franc" entering the French monetary vocabulary through this transaction.

Charles V never fought a battle himself, but the monetary architecture he built around this coin helped stabilize a currency system his father had debased into near-collapse.