Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Denier - Adrian I bust
| Issuer | Papal States |
|---|---|
| Year | 772-795 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Facing bust of Pope Adrian I in schematic, Byzantine-influenced style, rendered with a broad, flat face framed by a decorated crown or tiara. The letters 'I' and 'B' appear in the left and right fields respectively flanking the bust. The portrait is stylized rather than naturalistic, with the drapery indicated by angular lines below the neck. The surrounding circular legend reads HADRIANVS PP, identifying the pontiff by name and title. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Latin |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Adrian I's pontificate marked the decisive break between the papacy and Byzantium as the dominant power in central Italy. His alliance with Charlemagne — cemented by the Frankish king's military campaigns against the Lombards in 773–774 — gave the papacy both territorial expansion and the political independence needed to issue coinage in its own right. These deniers represent the first generation of that autonomous papal mint output, produced in Rome under conditions that were as much political declarations as they were monetary instruments.
The bust type is notably rare within Adrian's coinage; most surviving examples follow the monogram reverse pairing documented across MEC I.