Livre tournois
The story behind Livre tournois.
- Years
- Under research
- Where
- Europe
- Family
- Roman solidus
- Status
- Under research
Chicago dates the first assignat authorization to December 1789, linking livre-denominated claims to sales of state lands.1
The law of 18 Germinal III names the monetary unit franc instead of livre and calls its hundredths centimes.2
Delage dates decimal subdivision of the monetary livre to August 24, 1793.3
A fuller story is under research.
Timeline
Royal adoption
Philippe Auguste adopts the Saint-Martin type for western royal money after the Norman conquest. Parisis money coexisted. This does not establish a universal replacement in 1203.4
Regional accounting system
Inference: Tournois is the Tours-derived variant of the livre–sou–denier system. No claim that metal content stayed fixed from the Carolingian period.5
Coins and notes
Images are under research. Each image will carry its caption, collection credit and public-domain or CC0 license.
How do we know?
Frankish denier–livre reckoning → Livre tournois
Qualified regional currency continuity · 794–1204: broad research envelope, not a dated founding or completed local sequence
Compressed regional ancestry; intervening local account-unit stages unresolved. Upper bound is a documentary reference horizon, not a currency creation date.6
Verbatim source excerpt under research. The linked notes identify the source and passage supporting this connection.
Successor connections
- French franc · Documented · Connection evidence
Legal history and sources
Chicago dates the first assignat authorization to December 1789, linking livre-denominated claims to sales of state lands.1
The law of 18 Germinal III names the monetary unit franc instead of livre and calls its hundredths centimes.2
Delage dates decimal subdivision of the monetary livre to 24 August 1793.3
Philippe Auguste adopts the Saint-Martin type for western royal money after the Norman conquest. Parisis money coexisted. This does not establish a universal replacement in 1203.4
Tournois is the Tours-derived variant of the livre–sou–denier system. No claim that metal content stayed fixed from the Carolingian period.5
Source notes
- University of Chicago Library · Guide to the French Currency Collection 1791 to 1796
Historical Note, opening
- Convention nationale; Newberry Library digitization, Internet Archive · Loi relative aux poids et mesures, 18 Germinal an III
Printed p. 3, articles V and VII; title dated 18 Germinal III
- Irène Delage; Fondation Napoléon · A history of the Franc: the key moments
The modern franc is born paragraph
- Jean Lafaurie, 1970, pp. 117–137 · Numismatique. Des Carolingiens aux Capétiens
p.136
- Académie française · Académie française — Tournois; Jean Lafaurie, 1970, pp. 117–137 · Numismatique. Des Carolingiens aux Capétiens
Named short source page; relevant history/definition passage as reported in the handoff. · p.136; DOI 10.3406/ccmed.1970.1852
- Jean Lafaurie, 1970, pp. 117–137 · Numismatique. Des Carolingiens aux Capétiens; Académie française · Académie française — Tournois; Alessia Rovelli, in Rory Naismith (ed.), Money and Coinage in the Middle Ages (2018), pp. 63–92 · From the Fall of Rome to Charlemagne (c.400–800)
Lafaurie pp. 134–136; Tournois entry; Rovelli pp. 81–82
Full claim history and source register →
Cite this currency
“Livre tournois.” The Family Tree of Money. Field Technologies, Inc. Data v49; accessed 14 October 2026.
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