Franks

フランク ／ frank　—　People & places

The people who built a kingdom in western Europe.

Pennsylvania note printed by Franklin18 June 1764 (as printed) Free Imperial City of Frankfurt, One Thaler, 17721772 Merovingian gold tremissis6th–7th century

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Frankish kings struck pseudo-imperial gold trientes that copied the visage and titles of the emperor in Constantinople. The emperor's name eventually disappeared, to be replaced by the names of the mint and the moneyer.

In 794, Charlemagne decreed that 240 deniers were to be struck from one livre of silver. One livre was twenty sous, and one sou was twelve deniers. This system of division survived for over a thousand years as the pound-shilling-pence system.

⚠ The name of the currency, the franc, was born from the inscription on a gold coin struck for the ransom of John II: FRANCORVM REX—King of the Franks.