Pistole is the French name given to a Spanishgold coin in use from 1537; it was a double escudo, the gold unit. The name was also given to the Louis d'Or of Louis XIII of France, and to other European gold coins of about the value of the Spanish coin. One pistole was worth approximately ten livres or three écus, but higher figures are also seen. The derivation is uncertain; the term may come from the Czechpíšťala, or from the Italian town of Pistoia; either way, it was originally spelled pistolet and originated in military slang, and probably has the same root as pistol. A small number of gold pistoles and double pistoles were minted in Ireland in 1646, during the Irish Confederate Wars and the reign of Charles I. James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond authorised the issue in order to prevent troop defections, as there was a shortage of silver coins for paying soldiers. The coins had an approximate value of 13 shillings ; they are today worth over £65,000, as only eleven examples are known to survive. They are the only gold coins ever struck in Ireland, except for a small number of proof and ECU issues. The pistole weighed 103 grains while the double pistole was 206 grains ; the fineness was 19 karat. The coins did not bear any royal symbols, simply their weight on both sides. A coin with this name was minted in Scotland in 1701, under William III, with a weight of 106 grains and a value of 12 pounds Scots. The coin appears repeatedly in Dumas' fiction. He has his character state, in The Three Musketeers set in the 1620s, that one hundred pistoles were worth a thousand livres tournois when Athos bargains for the horse he takes to the battle of La Rochelle. It was also referred to by Raphael Sabatini; who wrote 'swashbuckling' tales ofthe 17th and 18th centuries; in his book, St Martin's Summer. The coin gave its name to the town of Trois-Pistoles, Quebec, where according to local legend an explorer lost a goblet worth three pistoles in the river.
