Penny

It was first minted on August 15, 1266 in the city of Tours during the reign of King Louis IX ^[3] . Coins of the city of Acre , with which the French king met during the seventh crusade ^[3], are the prototype of the penny. The obverse of the coin contained the symbol of the city (chapel or city gate), the circular inscription “TURONUS CIVIS” and 12 lilies along the edge of the coin. In the center of the reverse there was a cross with an internal circular inscription - the name of the suzerain and the external one - “Benedictum sit nomen domini nostri Jesu Christi” ( Russian blessed be the name of the Lord our God, Jesus Christ ) ^{[1] [4]} . From one French brand (244.752 g) 23 carat silver, 58 Turkish pennies should have been produced. Thus, this coin contained 4.04 g of pure silver with a total weight of 4.22 g ^[5] .

The penny was 12 turkey deniers ^{[1] [4]} or 1/20 livres ^[6] . Under Philip IV (1285–1314) coins were minted in ½ and 1/3 of the Turkish pennies. Coins in denominations of ½ and ¹ ⁄ _{3 of a} penniless were called ( May or a tour parvus ) and maille tierce, respectively ^[1] . At the described time, the cost of a penny was increased to 15 denier. Under the heirs of Philip IV, the silver content in the coin decreased. Under Philip V (1316–1322), 59 1/6 of these monetary units (weight 4.137 g) were minted from the silver brand, under Philip VI (1328–1350) - 60 (weight 4.08 g), and under Charles V (1364–1380 ) - 96 (weight 2.55 g) ^[1] . Under Philip VI, the issue of the Parisian pennies equivalent in value to the Turkish mint was arranged at the Paris Mint . Since 1352, to cover the costs of the war with the British, they began to issue low-grade billon coins , called blanc ^{[1] [7]} .

Having started minting Turkish pennies, France laid the foundation for the distribution of a large silver coin, the need for which was caused by the development of trade ^[1] . These coins contained a greater amount of precious metal compared to the Italian “ grosso ”, common at that time, whose weight was 3 g ^[8] .

Initially, due to the lack of silver, in the Middle Ages a new coin was reissued from the old, worn out one. The re-release process was accompanied by a small but constant decrease in sample and weight. The weight of the medieval silver denarius , which in the German states was called " pfennig " ^[9] , was constantly decreasing, while the diameter remained unchanged. The circle of coins became so thin that the images of obverse and reverse appeared on opposite sides, thereby distorting each other. Such coins are called semi-bracteata , or "easy pfennig." After the start of the Crusades, large volumes of precious metals began to arrive in Europe. Silver denarii ceased to meet the needs of booming trade ^[10] . All this contributed to the widespread distribution of full-fledged tour pennies and the appearance of many of their imitations ^[11] .

The first imitation of the Turkish pennies in Central Europe was Czech coins, which began to be minted in the mint of Kutna Hora in 1300 under King Wenceslas II , called Prague pennies ^{[11] [12]} . In 1303 in the Kingdom of Naples they began to mint similar grand tournais carlino ^[13] . In 1338, similar coins were issued in Meissen , and then their minting was established in other German cities ^[14] . The German designation of the Turkish penny as “grosus Turonus” ^[15] led to the appearance of the names “Turnosgroschen”, “Turnose” and “Groschen”. The designation of “turnosus” occurs up to the second half of the 17th century ^[16] .

In England, as an imitation of the Turkish pennies, in 1279 there was a groot ^[17] , in 1302 in the Netherlands - a groot ^{[18] [19]} . In the states of the Lower Weser region (in particular, Bremen ), the grotto was initially the unit of account for the equivalent of the tournais. The coin with the denomination in grottoes was first minted in 1423 ^{[20] [5] [21]} .

• Zvarich V.V. Numismatic Dictionary . - 4th ed .. - Lviv: Higher school, 1980.
• Makhun S.G., Pyadyshev D.A. Thaler: from Sigismund of Tyrol to the era of the Napoleonic Wars // Coin Thaler. History, style, legends, the art of engravers, portraits of the great .... - K .: Ukrainian Academy of Heraldry, Trademark and Logos, 2014. - 407 p. - ISBN 978-966-8153-84-6 .
• Fengler H., Girow G., Unger V. Dictionary of numismatists / Otv. ed. V.M. Potin. - 2nd ed., Revised. and additional .. - M .: Radio and communications, 1993. - ISBN 5-256-00317-8 .
• Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron . - SPb. : Semenov typolithography (I.A. Efron), 1890-1907.
• Jungk Hermann. Die Bremischen Münzen. Münzen und Medaillen des Erzbisthums und der Stadt Bremen mit geschichtlicher Einleitung . - Bremen: Verlag von C. Ed. Müller, 1875.
• Gros tournois // Wörterbuch der Münzkunde / Wörterbuch der Münzkunde. - Berlin: J. Guttenberg Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1970 .-- P. 242. - 757 p.