Arles had been a major mint since the late Roman period, and Charlemagne's decision to retain it reflects the city's continued commercial weight in the Rhône corridor and Mediterranean trade routes. These early deniers predate the monetary reform of 793–794, which standardized the pound at 240 pennies and increased the weight of the denier substantially — making this lighter issue a product of the transitional, still-unstable monetary system Charlemagne inherited from his father Pippin.
The Arles attribution is confirmed by the cross-referencing of multiple corpus entries across Gariel, Prou, and Morrison, though die linkage studies have complicated clean mint assignments for several CAROLVS types. Nouchy#11 placement at p.46 remains the standard anchor for this specific variety.
Arles had been a major mint since the late Roman period, and Charlemagne's decision to retain it reflects the city's continued commercial weight in the Rhône corridor and Mediterranean trade routes. These early deniers predate the monetary reform of 793–794, which standardized the pound at 240 pennies and increased the weight of the denier substantially — making this lighter issue a product of the transitional, still-unstable monetary system Charlemagne inherited from his father Pippin.
The Arles attribution is confirmed by the cross-referencing of multiple corpus entries across Gariel, Prou, and Morrison, though die linkage studies have complicated clean mint assignments for several CAROLVS types. Nouchy#11 placement at p.46 remains the standard anchor for this specific variety.