Salt put over the French silver coin (5)

I believe the answer is:

taler

'silver coin' is the definition.
(historical type of coin)

'salt put over the french' is the wordplay.
'salt' becomes 'tar' (both can informally mean a sailor).
'put over' indicates putting letters inside.
'the french' becomes 'le' ('the' in French).
'tar' enclosing 'le' is 'TALER'.

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app