In France the sou (until 1715 sol) was the name of a coin. It was first minted in gold, from the 1200s in silver and during the 1700s in copper. The sou tournois was a 12-denier coin, one-twentieth of the livre tournois (Tournois pound), while the sou parisis was a 15-denier coin. After decimalisation in France, the sou became the name for a five-centime coin, one-twentieth of the French franc(Until the late 1960s, the expression "20 sou" was a synonym of 1 Franc).
To this day, sou is used as jargon for money, as in j'ai pas de sous. "I'm broke", "I haven't got two bob to rub together".
Sou of copper, coined 1767 for Louis XV of France[edit]
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