The franc à cheval was a gold coin of one livre tournois minted in large numbers from 1360.

[4] Between 1360 and 1641, coins worth one livre tournois were minted, known as francs (the name coming from the inscription Johannes Dei Gratia Francorum Rex, [Jean, by the grace of God, King of the French]).

[citation needed] With many forms of domestic and international money (with different weights, purities and quality) circulating throughout Europe in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period, the use of an accounting currency became a financial necessity.

[4] (A monetary unit of accounting based on the livre parisis continued to be used for minor uses in and around Paris and was not officially abolished until 1667 by Louis XIV).

Since coins in Europe in the Middle Ages and the early modern period (the French écu, Louis, teston d'argent, denier, double, franc; the Spanish doubloon, pistole, real; the Italian florin, ducat or sequin; the German and Austrian thaler; the Dutch gulden, etc.)

A glyph for the livre tournois was added to Unicode 5.2, in the Currency Symbols block at code point U+20B6.