Gros Tournois 上市 Deposited
A billon French coin of the value of four Deniers, originally issued by Louis IX about the middle of the fourteenth century, and extensively copied by other nations. It receives its name from the city of Tours, at which place it was first struck.
The general type has on one side a chapel or city gate and the inscription TVRONIS CIVIS surrounded by a wreath of lilies, and on the reverse a cross pattee enclosed by legends in two circles, the inner circle bearing the name of the ruler and the outer one the words BNDICTV. SIT. NOME. DNI. NRI. IHV. XPI., an abbreviaton of benedictum sit nomen domini nostri Jesu Christi.
In the latter part of the fourteenth century the type was imitated in the Rhine Provinces where it received the name of Turnosgroschen, later abbreviated into Turnose.
The coin enjoyed such a popularity that the term Turnois distinguished money based on the standard of Tours down to the time of Louis XIV.
For an interesting treatise showing that the Gros Tournois is not an imitation of the Dinar issued at Saint Jean d'Acre in the year 1251, see Mons. Adrien Blanchet's communication to the Comptes rendus de L'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Paris, 1910. See Groat.
The Tournay Groat was the last of the Anglo-Gallic series issued by Henry VIII in 1513.
The Denier, also struck at Tours, and of the same design was generally known as the Petit Tournois.
- Frey's Dictionary (American Journal of Numismatics, Vol. 50, 1916)