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Gros Tournois - Louis IX
| Issuer | France |
|---|---|
| Year | 1266-1270 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Orientation | Variable alignment ↺ |
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| Obverse description | Central cross pattee set within a beaded inner circle, dividing the field into four quarters. The royal title of Louis IX is rendered in Gothic Latin capitals within the annular legend between the inner beaded circle and an outer beaded border, reading: + LVDOVICVS REX. A second outer legend, separated by a further beaded circle, carries the devotional inscription BNDICTV: SIT: NOmE: DHI: nRI: DEI: IhV. XPI. The legends are executed in the angular, compact Gothic script characteristic of mid-thirteenth-century French royal coinage. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
The gros tournois was introduced by Louis IX in 1266 as France's first large silver coin of account — a direct response to the flood of Italian grossi that had come to dominate Mediterranean trade. The design was deliberately anchored to Tours, where the royal abbey of Saint-Martin had long guaranteed a monetary standard. It became so trusted that it circulated across Europe for generations after Louis's death in 1270, imitated by dozens of princes and city-states who could not issue a credible silver coin of their own.
The fineness of .958 held remarkably consistent through Louis's reign, a standard his successors steadily debased within decades.