Pistole

Pistole is the French name given to a Spanish gold coin in use in 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 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.

A coin with this name was minted in Scotland in 1701, under William II, with a weight of 106 grains (6.84g ca.) and a value of 12 scottish pounds.

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.

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external references

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

Browning Hi-Power

The Browning Hi Power is a single-action, semi-automatic handgun available in 9mm and .40 S&W calibers. It is based on a design by American firearms inventor John Browning, and completed by Dieudonné Saive at Fabrique Nationale (FN) of Herstal, Belgium. Browning died in 1926, several years before the design was finalized. The Hi-Power is one of the most widely used military pistols in history, having been used by the armed forces of over 50 countries.

The Hi Power name is somewhat misleading and alluded to the 13-round magazine capacity, almost twice that of contemporary designs such as the Luger or Mauser 1910. The pistol is often referred to as an HP (for "Hi-Power" or "High-Power") or as a GP (for the French term, "Grande Puissance"). The terms P-35 and HP-35 are also used, based on the introduction of the pistol in 1935. It is most often called the "Hi Power", even in Belgium. Other names include BAP (Browning Automatic Pistol), particularly in Irish Army service, or BHP (Browning High-Power).