Denier - Charlemagne Lyon mint, City gate

These final years of Charlemagne's reign saw the Lyon mint producing deniers under a reformed weight standard imposed by the capitulary of Frankfurt in 794, which fixed the penny at roughly 1.7g and later closer to 2g — a deliberate standardization meant to unify coinage across an empire stretching from the Elbe to the Ebro. Lyon's position as a major ecclesiastical and commercial center on the Rhône corridor made it one of the more active mints of the period. Charlemagne died in January 814, making this a terminal issue from the reign.