Wallet

From the Middle Ages until the mid-19th century, deniers, écus, and later the first francs and centimes were carried in purses, alms pouches, or small leather change purses, often attached to belts. When, in the second half of the 19th century, the Second Empire put into circulation more than one hundred million 20-franc gold coins bearing the image of Louis Napoleon III, it became necessary to create a secure and practical system for storing and transporting these precious coins individually. Craftsmen devised a kind of coin box, which took the name "coin box," then "gold holder," and quickly became the "Louis holder," the Emperor's first name, but also a reminder of the first "Louis d'or" coin created at the end of the reign of Louis XIII in 1641.