Forms: 4–8 frank, 9 franc. [a. F. franc, said to be derived from the legend Francorum rex, ‘king of the Franks,’ on the first coins which were so called.
The F. word appears as the name of a gold coin in an official document of 1360 (Hatz.-Darm.); the legend Francorum rex occurs on a gold coin struck in the same year.]
The name of a French coin or money of account, of different values at different periods. a. A gold coin, in the 14th c. weighing about 60 grs., and intrinsically worth about 10s. 6d. of our present money, but afterwards depreciated. b. (Sometimes Pound Franc.) A silver coin, first struck in 1575, identical with the livre tournois of 20 sols; in the 18th c. English money-changers valued it at 9d. or 10d. c. Since 1795, a silver coin representing the monetary unit of the decimal system; its value is slightly more than 91/2d.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Shipman’s T., 201. For I wol bringe yow an hundred frankes.
c. 1400. Sowdone Bab., 589.
| Take a thausande pounde of Frankis fyne, | |
| To wage wyth the pepul newe. |
1494. Fabyan, Chron., VII. 527. A franke is worth .ii.s. sterlg.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., IX. 236. Ilk ȝeir how lang he lyuet xxx thousand frankis.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turks (1638), 223. The yearely tribute of 400000 duckats of gold, and 900000 franks of siluer.
1685. Baxter, Paraphr. N. T., Mark vi. 34, note. Beza reckoneth the 200 pence, to 35 pound Frank of Tours.
1702. W. J., Bruyn’s Voy. Levant, xxxii. 129. A Chicken of Gold … which amounts to Seven Francs and half.
1810. Naval Chron., XXIV. 300–1. The monetary unit is a piece of silver weighing five grams, containing one-tenth alloy, and nine-tenths pure, to which has been applied the term Franc (Frank).
1892. E. Reeve, Homeward Bound, 227. We had again to turn our pesetas into francs at a loss.
