Lauder mentions a great variety of coins both in his Journal in France and in his Accounts after his return home. Some explanation of the principal coins may be useful. It is necessary to keep in mind that the value of coins was in a perpetual flux. There were during the century frequent changes in the value of coins relatively even to those of the same country.
(1) _Livre_. The livre used by Lauder, and called by him indifferently 'frank,' was the livre tournois,[28] of 20 sous. It was, subject to exchange, of the same value as the pound Scots,[29] 1s. 8d. sterling, which greatly simplifies calculations. The £ s. d. French was equal to the £ s. d. Scots, and one twelfth of the value of the £ s. d. English or sterling.
[28] The livre parisis contained 25 sous.--Major's _Greater Britain_ (S.H.S.), p. 32, note.
(2) _Ecu, écu blanc_, or _d'argent_, a silver coin worth 3 livres,[30] or 5s. sterling, thus of the same value as the English crown, and sometimes called crown by Lauder.
[30] The value varied a little, but it was three livres in 1653.-- _Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions et de Belles Lettres_ (1857), Tome 21, 2'me partie, p. 350.
(3) _Ecu d'or_, or _couronne_, golden crown. It was worth about 5 livres 12 sous,[31] equal to 9s. 4d. sterling. (P. 155, 'I receaved some 56 ll. in 10 golden crowns.')
[31] The exact value in 1666 in livres tournois was 5 ll. 11s. 6d.-- _Mémoires, ut supra_, p. 256.
(4) _Pistole_. A Spanish gold coin current in France. Its standard value was 10 livres tournois, equal to 16s. 8d. That fairly corresponds with a proclamation in Ireland in 1661 fixing it at 16s. Littré (_Dict._ s.v.), states the value of the coin a good deal higher, though he gives the standard as above. But its value gradually increased, like that of other gold coins, and in later Irish proclamations is much higher.
The British gold coins _Jacobus_ and _Carolus_ were also used by Lauder in France, and are explained below.
[32] See Cochran Patrick's _Records of the Coinage of Scotland_ (1876); Ruding's _Annals of the Coinage_ (1817); and _Handbook of the Coins of Great Britain and Ireland_ in the British Museum, by H.A. Grueber (1899); Burns, _Coinage of Scotland_.
(1) _Jacobus_ (2) _Carolus_. James VI. on his accession to the throne of England, with a view to the union of the kingdoms, issued a coinage for both countries, which was in this sense uniform that each Scottish coin was commensurable and interchangeable with an English coin. The ratio of the Scots to the English £ s. d., which during centuries was always becoming lower, was finally fixed at 1 to 12. The English 20s. and Scots 12 l. pieces of equal value now issued were called the unite. The double crown or 10s. piece was the Scots 6 l. piece, the crown the Scots 3 l. piece, and so on.