Pistoles in Dumas le pere famous novel: The three Musketeers

When I was young, I loved immensely this novel. I read first in translation, then in French, and recently I listened it again in French as an Audiobook from Librivox. I am sure most of my readers have at least seen one of the several movies that are based on the book.

Throughout the book, when there is reference to money, Dumas invariably gives the amount in 'pistoles'.

... Athos, when he won remained as unmoved as when he lost. He had been known, in the circle of the Musketeers, to win in one night three thousand pistoles; to lose them even to the gold-embroidered belt for gala days, win all this again with the addition of a hundred louis, without his beautiful eyebrow being heightened or lowered half a line, without his hands losing their pearly hue, without his conversation, which was cheerful that evening, ceasing to be calm and agreeable.

So where was the Louis d'or, the famous French gold coin, mentioned by so many authors, from Moliere to Balzac? Why were the French aristocracy using Spanish coins at the time when they were actually in war with Spain?

I found the answer in the scholarly paper of Shepard Pond, titled "The Louis d'Or", which appeared in the Bulletin of the Business Historical Society, Vol. 14, No. 5, pp. 77-80, in 1940. Pond writes:

"At the time of the setting of the Three Musketeers (the siege of La Rochelle in 1627 in the reign of Louis XIII), the louis d'or did not exist. The French currency, gold and silver alike, was in a state of disorder...

At this time the gold and silver of the Americas was flowing into Spain in a steady stream and, in an equally steady stream, was flowing out again to the Lowlands (then partly Spanish) and other countries. The dominant Spanish gold piece of the period (and Spanish coins, gold and silver alike, dominated Europe) was called the pistole, a coin name which has never been explained to the satisfaction of numismatists. The pistole, which was then circulating very widely in France, is mentioned constantly in the Three Musketeers. It was a broad gold piece, 22 carats or .916 fine, weighing about 6.70 grams...

Therefore, when the great French currency reform came in 1640 under Louis XIII, what was more natural than to take the ubiquitious pistole as the standard for the new French gold unit? From then on pistoles were restruck into French gold coins..."

I could not find a good pic of the pistole, that is, the 2 escudos coin, which is in the public domain. The best pic I found is from a site selling coins from the Atocha shipwreck. Please follow this link to see the picture. As the Atocha sank in 1622, it is possible that the same sort of coins were used in France, in 1627.

Othewise the coin on the picture is on sale for 22,800 USD.