Pistole Öffentlichkeit Deposited
from the Spanish pistola, a plate of metal. Originally this was a Spanish gold coin struck in the beginning of the sixteenth century and approximate^ of the value of one fourth of the Dobla. It was the prototype of the Louis d'Or of France and was also copied in the Pala- tinate and by several of the Swiss cantons, Geneva, Uri, etc.
In the later German coinage the Pistole represents a gold coin of five Thaler, and received various names from the sovereign whose portrait it bore, e.g., Frieclrich's d'Or, etc.
- Frey's Dictionary (American Journal of Numismatics, Vol. 50, 1916)