Gros tournois

By the ordinance of 24 July 1266, Louis IX issued the large silver coin known as the gros tournois. The standard was 4.22 grams in weight at a silver fineness of 958‰; surviving pieces run to about 4.06 grams and 25.4 millimetres across. Since the Carolingians France had had in effect only one denomination, the denier; here, for the first time in eight centuries, a good royal coin of substantial value appeared. The face carries a cross and the king's name, the back the design of the castle of Tours and twelve lilies — two authorities, religion and kingship, cut into a single piece. It was a coin that drove the king's measure into a divided world of money.