Livre tournois

For broader coverage of this topic, see French livre.
Livre tournois
La Banque Royale: 100 livres Tournois (1720)
Unit
Unitlivre
Symbol₶‎
Denominations
Subunit
 1⁄20sous
sol until 1714
 1⁄240denier
Demographics
User(s)France
This infobox shows the latest status before this currency was rendered obsolete.

The livre tournois (French pronunciation: [livʁ tuʁnwa]; lit. 'Tours pound'; abbreviation: ₶ or £[1]) was one of numerous currencies used in medieval France,[2] and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in early modern France.

The 1262 monetary reform established the livre tournois as 20 sous tournois, or 80.88 grams of fine silver. The franc à cheval was a gold coin of one livre tournois minted in large numbers from 1360. In 1549, the livre tournois was decreed a unit of account, and in 1667 it officially replaced the livre parisis.[3] In 1720, the livre tournois was redefined as 0.31 grams of pure gold, and in 1726, in a devaluation under Louis XV, as 4.50516 grams of fine silver. It was the basis of the revolutionary French franc of 1795, defined as 4.5 grams of fine silver exactly.

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