Sou
The sou , [su], historically also sol , is a former French coin and currency unit.
The name goes back to the Roman solidus gold coin . In the Carolingian coin system , one sol (equivalent to the German shilling and the English shilling ) was equivalent to twelve deniers or one twentieth of a livre . At first the sol remained a pure currency of account until it was first minted as a silver coin in the form of the gros tournois in 1266 . Minted in France in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, douzain corresponded to a sol tournois .
During the 17th / 18th In the 19th century, the form “Sou” replaced the older “Sol”. Due to inflation, the sou was just a copper coin at the time of the French Revolution.
When the French franc replaced the livre in 1795 , the sou disappeared as the official currency denomination, but it was used to denote the 5- centime piece well into the 20th century . Today sou is still used as a synonym for money in many French idioms.
literature
- Jules-Adrien Blanchet, Adolphe Dieudonné: Manuel de Numismatique française , 3 volumes. Paris 1912, 1916, 1930.