French livre

This system and the denier itself served as the model for many of Europe's currencies, including the British pound, Italian lira, Spanish dinero and the Portuguese dinheiro.

For much of the Middle Ages, different duchies of France were semi-autonomous if not practically independent from the weak Capetian kings, and thus each minted its own currency.

Philip II conquered much of the continental Angevin Empire from King John of England, including Normandy, Anjou, and Touraine.

Upon his return from the crusades in the 1250s, Louis IX instigated a royal monopoly on the minting of coinage in France and minted the first gold écu d'or and silver gros d'argent, whose weights (and thus monetary divisions) were roughly equivalent to the livre tournois and the denier.

However, in 1577, the livre tournois accounting unit was officially abolished and replaced by the écu, which was at that time the major French gold coin in actual circulation.

The Banque Royale (the last issuer of these early notes) crashed in 1720, rendering the banknotes worthless (see John Law for more on this system).

In 1726, under Louis XV's minister Cardinal Fleury, a system of monetary stability was put in place.

Yet in 1720 a special coin minted in pure silver was produced and assigned a token value of 1₶.

[2] A kind of paper money was reintroduced by the Caisse d'Escompte in 1776 as actions au porteur, denominated in livres.

The last coins and notes of the livre currency system were issued in Year II of the Republic (1794).

Still the word livre survived; until the middle of the 19th century it was indifferently used alongside the word franc, especially to express large amounts and transactions linked with property (real estate, property incomes or "rentes", cattle, etc...).