alternatehistory.com

That is, when did it become common place to use it? Such as denoting something in say, writing, as ₣20,000 for instance, over 20,000 Francs? I know the Franc was essentially revolutionized during Napoleon's time to replace the useless assignot and give France a currency following the rejection of the royal currencies, but it seems to be a confusing currency.

The "Franc" was minted from 1360 to 1380, then later as a silver coin from 1575 to 1641, not becoming national currency until 1799. Louis XIII essentially abolished the franc in favor of the gold Louis d'Or, an d the silver Écu.

The stable currency remained the Livre, of course (or rather, the Livre Tournois). The Louis d'Or was worth about five of these, although the original coin had 23 carats of gold versus the 22 that had been established as an international standard by Charles V a century before. So there was also a demi Louis d'Or that had the exact amount in it. The Écu, mainwhile, was worth about three Livres.

The Livre, as it was called, was essentially short for Livre Tournois, and served as both a unit of acccout for international trade and a circulating currencu. There was also a Livre Parisis which had been a coin of the Capetians. It too served as a unit of account until Louis XIV abolished it.

Although the French franc was abolished in 1641 to replaced with the Louis d'Or and Écu, it seems like French currency was still referred to it in numbers of Francs. Despite the fact the Livre Tournois has a currency sysmbol (Here) I can find no clear info regarding whether French finances, especially governmental, were conducted in Livres or in Francs.

Weird question, I know, but I only ask for my alternate history and it would be nice to write large amounts of money with a currency icon. Just don't know if using the Franc icon would be arachonistic and if I should continue ti just say Livres (unfortunately the Livre symbol is only recognized by like, 5 fonts. Go figure).

Most writing tends to lean towards Livres without the icon, but I'm simply curious, how wide spread the pound symbol was even in Henry VIII's time. Seems odd the French didn't have their own, even when their kings were busy raising massive amounts of cash they were raising through rentes, forced loans, the Estates-General, and the taille.
Top