The livre parisis ([livʁ paʁizi], Paris pound), also known as the Paris or Parisian livre, was a medieval French coin and unit of account originally notionally equivalent to a French pound of silver.
[1] It was the chief currency of the Capetian dynasty before being generally replaced by the livre tournois ("Tours pound") under Philip II in the 13th century.
Following the usual system of medieval Western Europe, the Paris livre was divided into 20 Paris sols (sols parisis) based on the Roman solidus or 240 Paris deniers (deniers parisis) based on the Roman denarius, 12 deniers to each sol.
Philip II captured Tours and the surrounding County of Anjou from England in 1203.
Although the Parisian coins were notionally worth 125% of their Tournais counterparts,[a] the Tours livre quickly outstripped the less stable Parisian currency as a unit of account in his realms.