Écu
coin
The term écu (French pronunciation: [eky]) may refer to one of several French coins. The first écu was a gold coin (the écu d'or) minted during the reign of Louis IX of France, in 1266. The value of the écu varied considerably over time, and silver coins (known as écu d'argent) were also introduced.
Écu (from Latin scutum) means 'shield'. The coin was so called because its design included the coat of arms of France. The word is related to the Catalan escut, Italian scudo, or Portuguese and Castilian escudo. In English, the écu was often referred to as the crown, or the French crown in the eras of the English crown, British crown, and other crowns.
History
Origin
When Louis IX took the throne, France still used small silver deniers (abbreviated d.), which had circulated since the time of Charlemagne to the exclusion of larger silver or gold coins. Over the years, French kings had granted numerous nobles and bishops the right to strike coins, and their "feudal" coinages competed with the royal coinage. Venice and Florence had already shown that there was demand for larger silver and gold coins and in 1266 Louis IX sought an advantage for the royal coinage by expanding it in these areas.
“Écu” enters the record as coin. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what coin can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Écu” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, coin provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q273724. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1266.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
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- Expand the search: follow Écu primary sources, Écu archive and coin research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Écu” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.