Introduction
The Carolingian dynasty is well known to people who have grown up in France, Germany and their neighbours, but less familiar to those from Great Britain. Their reign began when the then Mayor of the Palace, Pippin the Short (751–768), also known as Pippin III, usurped the Merovingian throne and brought an end to that royal line. His father Charles Martel (†741) had already made a name for himself as victor over al-Umayyad forces from Spain at the battle of Poitiers in 732, but never took the title of king. Pippin was succeeded by his better known son, Charles, later known as Charlemagne, that is, Charles the Great (768–814), whose Latin name, Carolus, is the origin of the name ‘Carolingian’. Charlemagne is the one Carolingian ruler that most people have heard of, being crowned emperor by the Pope in Rome on Christmas Day 800. His achievements were remarkable – he unified the kingdom, expanded its territory, and as we shall see, in a coinage reform in 793 introduced what became the standard form of the medieval penny. His son and heir Louis the Pious (814-840) also accomplished an astonishing numismatic feat, introducing a single currency across a huge territory with extraordinary effectiveness, but historians have been far less kind to him. For on his death his sons (and nephew) fought among themselves and the empire split into three kingdoms, subsequently splintering and fracturing still further. Louis has always been blamed for this, with his piety being seen as a poor substitute for military victory and territorial expansion.
A series of descendants followed, many of them confusingly named Charles, Louis or Lothar, until the accession of the Ottonians in Germany in 919 and the Capetians in France in 987. To illustrate how bewildering the period can be for the novice collector venturing into the field, there were at least three rulers named Louis II – one in France (877-879, also known as Louis the Stammerer), one in Germany (840–876, more commonly referred to as Louis the German) and one in Italy (855-875)! To add another level of complexity, some rulers are known by different names in different languages (and sometimes even in English is well). A fine example is Raoul or Rudolf or Rodolphe or Ralph, who ruled France in the early tenth century (923-936). There is a compensation, however, in the amusing cognomens certain kings acquired, such as Charles the Bald (840-877), Charles the Fat (885-887) or Charles the Simple (898-923), although poor Charles the Simple’s title originally meant ‘the straightforward’ rather than ‘the dim-witted’.
Carolingian coinage – before the reform
The most sought-after – and thus most expensive – coins are undoubtedly those of Pippin III and Charlemagne. In Pippin’s case this is partly due to scarcity, as only a few hundred are known, but with Charlemagne it is undoubtedly the cachet associated with his name which accounts for their value. The study of the pre-reform coinage is especially challenging, as it marks a transitional stage from the preceding Merovingian deniers and early silver northern pennies (often called ‘sceattas’), and the inscriptions, monograms and symbols on Pippin and Charlemagne’s early coins can be hard to decipher and interpret. These pre-reform coins are larger than the coinages they replaced, at 14-18 mm rather than 11-13 mm, and heavier, reflecting the denier weight of c. 1.24 g established at the beginning of the eighth century but not maintained. The most significant change was that henceforth the king’s name featured on the obverse of virtually every coin. Over the course of Charlemagne’s reign it is clear that he was intent on standardising the appearance of the coinage still further, bringing the mints under closer royal control.
Pippin III, denier of Dorestad. Single find from Sankt-Goar, Rheinland-Pfalz.
Judging by the number of coins discovered in hoards and as single finds, under Pippin the most productive mint was Dorestad, a major port on the Rhine in what is now the Netherlands. Apart from the many Dutch finds, Dorestad coins have turned up far from where they were minted, in France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Denmark, and England (five). Dorestad remained an important mint under Charlemagne, but now Melle in south-western France emerged as by far the most productive in the kingdom. It was the site of the king’s only known silver mine, and the ever increasing number of finds of Melle coinage reveal that Charles must have ramped up the level of ore extraction and coin production over the course of his reign. It is the only mint known to have struck halfpennies (oboles) on a large scale at this time.
Previously unrecorded pre-reform types keep turning up regularly, so that the published reference works are very out of date, and even new surveys become outdated as soon as they are published.
Charlemagne’s reform and the age of empire
In 793 the pre-reform coinage was replaced by pennies very different in appearance, size and weight, now some 20 mm in diameter and weighing c. 1.7 g. Whereas some 120 mints are known from the first half of the reign, now the number was reduced to around 40. Most pre-reform coins bore the king’s name, CARo-LVS; on virtually all the new pennies it read CARLVSREXFR (Charles king of the Franks), while on the oboles or halfpennies that were now struck at a range of mints the obverse was simply the royal monogram, Karolvs. Hoards and single finds alike reveal that these new coins circulated throughout the empire in a remarkably unified currency pool, indicating that Charlemagne exercised strong political control over a thriving economy with lively long-distance trade. Analysis of single finds reveals that coins were travelling much further than previously, and that the number of coins in circulation increased throughout the reign of Charlemagne and then Louis the Pious. Melle continued to produce massive amounts of coin, although the fact that Charles the Bald later produced an identical type makes it virtually impossible for collectors to know whether the coin they are looking at was minted by the Great or the Bald: the price difference can be considerable. Dorestad also retained its importance, though now it was evidently surpassed in productivity by the Italian mints of Milan and Pavia. A previously unknown coin of this period which aroused considerable interest when it turned up in 2023 bore the name of Charlemagne’s queen Fastrada, evidently following in the footsteps of his Anglo-Saxon contemporary Offa.
At the very end of his reign Charles struck the most famous Carolingian coinage type of them all: his portrait coinage. These coins are, however, much less important than historians and numismatists believed in the past. For the small number of specimens (just 58 in total) reflects a very short-lived emission, probably in just one mint, meaning that their influence on the economy and the population would have been limited: most Franks would never have laid eyes on one. Their imagery and scarcity means that they remain the most sought-after Carolingian coinage, fetching large sums on the rare occasions they come up at auction.
By contrast, the more common portrait coins in the name of Louis the Pious circulated across the empire in significant numbers. They similarly emphasized imperial authority and its Roman roots, though the fact that they were now minted at numerous mints rather than just the palace at Aachen, resulted in the quality of the portraiture being less than impressive at certain locations.
The portrait coinage was minted for just two years before being replaced by Louis’ second type, with the mint-name in field. These are splendid coins of good quality silver and were produced at some 45 mints over six or seven years. They were replaced by what is by far the most common Carolingian type, widely available and easily collectible by even those of modest means, known as the temple type or Christiana religio coinage on account of its reverse inscription. It was produced in every single mint across the empire with very little variation, from Brittany to Italy and Frisia to the Mediterranean, with many millions of coins being struck between 822 or 823 and the death of the emperor in 840. Derivative types were produced in the Netherlands, the Swiss border region and Italy later in the ninth century, and in Normandy and Germany in the tenth, though it is generally possible to recognise the coins minted during Louis’s reign. The uniformity of the coins communicated imperial power and authority even to the illiterate, while their imagery witnessed to the empire’s strong Christian identity. Following in the footsteps of others, I have spent the past forty years using stylistic parallels and distribution patterns to identify the mints which produced these coins, with the result that now some 60% can be attributed to a likely origin.
The empire divides and coinage types multiply
The death of Louis the Pious in 840 led to conflict between his sons Lothar I (840-855), Louis the German and Charles the Bald, and his nephew Pippin II of Aquitaine (reigned 845-849). Armed clashes between the different factions led to the division of the empire in 843, creating the West Frankish, East Frankish and Middle kingdoms, and leaving Pippin without territory. Simmering resentment led to further outbreaks of hostility in the decades that followed, but during their long or short reigns all four rulers minted their own coinages. The quality of these coins is almost invariably poorer than the types which preceded them, with lower weights and lesser silver content, and a considerably greater variety of designs. Louis the German issued very little coinage at all, and in Italy, too, mint output seems to have dropped markedly, particularly at Venice. Although some types from this period are relatively common, others are extremely rare, although they are not as keenly collected as the coins of Charlemagne.
Viking raids began to plague the Continent during this period just as in the British Isles, resulting in a rise in the number of coin hoards, and particularly in the number of hoards going unrecovered. This is of course helpful for numismatists, in that it has led to more coins being found in modern times, either by chance or by metal detection. Having said that, in Italy and large parts of Germany detecting is all but banned, in France it was until recently quite widely practised but is now extremely restricted. In the Netherlands there is widespread detection, however, an excellent reporting system and a generally good relationship between the detecting community and professional numismatists and archaeologists.
While there is consequently a great variety of coinage types minted after 840, in the 860s two highly significant developments occurred. The first was the virtual disappearance of the Dorestad mint. The end of empire brought about a collapse in long-distance trade, with few coins travelling between kingdoms and circulation shrinking even within the different realms. Although trade with Scandinavians kept silver flowing into and out of Dorestad in the 840s, even this evidently ceased circa 850, leading to a serious silver shortage in the north of the Continent in the later ninth century. One result was that Scandinavians and Frisians living in this region began producing imitation gold coins of a type struck in small numbers by Louis the Pious in the 810s, with Vikings in the Danelaw in England also minting these imitation solidi.
Lothar I, denier, Aachen, Wirdum hoard.
The second major change was a highly effective coinage reform by the West Frankish king Charles the Bald in 864. Despite the continuing Scandinavian incursions and tensions with his magnates, Charles introduced a coinage with a standard design, raised the denier weight, and returned the silver content to over 90% fineness. All earlier types were removed from circulation, as were coins minted outside the West Frankish kingdom. This new type is known as the Gratia Dei rex or GDR type after its obverse inscription, and went on being minted under Charles’s successors, at some places becoming immobilised into the tenth century. Large numbers of these were hoarded, especially when the Great Viking Army crossed to the Continent in 879, and as a result they commonly appear on the numismatic market. Because similar coins were minted under Charles the Bald and his namesake Charles the Simple, it can be difficult to attribute an individual coin without a context to one ruler or the other, although the weight fell in the later period. While we noted above that the same is true of earlier coins of Melle minted in the name of a king Charles, after 864 a cross was added to the mint-name (MET+VLLO) or on oboles to the monogram, so that these coins can be dated to the later period. They did however become immobilised, being struck unchanged until around 920, when they were replaced by deniers reading MET-ALO. These went on being produced, getting progressively lighter, until the late 12th century.
Charles the Bald after 864, Gratia Dei rex denier, Le Mans.
If the most common coins are the Christiana religio deniers of Louis the Pious, and coins of Melle in the name of a king Charles the second most common, these GDR issues of Charles the Bald and his successors are the next easiest to collect. It is quite possible to pick up deniers in good condition from the more common mints for a reasonable price, though there are locations which struck more limited numbers of coins which fetch much higher sums. The coins of Charles’s immediate successors, Louis the Stammerer, Louis III (879-882), Carloman (879-884) and Odo (in French: ‘Eudes’, 888-897) are of equally good quality, and while not as plentiful due to the shorter reigns, are not difficult to find for sale.
“It is quite possible to pick up deniers in good condition from the more common mints for a reasonable price, though there are locations which struck more limited numbers of coins which fetch much higher sums. ”
Later tenth-century West Frankish coins are less popular among collectors, being often of visibly poorer quality, from less well-engraved dies, badly struck, and of lower weight. Italian coins of the period are relatively rare. Familiar from English hoards including Cuerdale, and now Watlington and Herefordshire, Italian deniers grew dramatically in diameter but not in weight in the late ninth century, thus becoming ever thinner and more fragile. In the tenth century they returned to a regular size, but retained the rims which they had acquired at their largest, consequently being recognisable as Italian at a glance. They are often difficult to decipher, however, with poorly executed inscriptions. In Germany, Cologne re-emerged as an important mint after 900, dominating finds from the Netherlands and Switzerland as well, a trend which continued into the Ottonian period.
For further reading
Medieval European Coinage 1, by Philip Grierson and Mark Blackburn, remains the only good survey of the entire coinage, even though it is
now nearly 40 years old and therefore outdated in several respects. My own book, Carolingian Coinage and the Vikings, covers the coinages issued
between 793 and 864. Both are ridiculously expensive. The catalogues of Carolingian coins produced by Gariel in the 1880s, Morrison and
Grunthal in 1967 and Depeyrot in four editions, the most recent from 2017, are invaluable but also full of errors.
Acknowledgements
Illustrations which are not the author’s own are from Stefan Wittenbrink, the Centre Charlemagne in Aachen (Holger Hermannsen), the Liebenstein Gesellschaft, Thomas Menting and the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (https://ikmk.smb. museum/object?id=18239649), to all of whom I am indebted.
By Simon Coupland