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Denier - Charlemagne Pavia mint
| Issuer | Unified Carolingian Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 793-812 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Pound (751-843) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Central field displays the Carolingian monogram of Charlemagne — a stylised Christogram-like device composed of the interlaced letters of KAROLVS — enclosed within a raised beaded inner circle. Four star-like or lozenge ornaments appear in the angles between the arms of the underlying cross structure, lending the design a cruciform framework. The outer legend ✠ PAPIA, the Latin toponym for Pavia, identifies the mint and is rendered in Roman capitals around the periphery. The reverse is typical of the reformed Carolingian denier coinage struck at Italian mints under Charlemagne's monetary reorganisation of 793–794. |
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| Reverse lettering | ✠ PAPIA (Translation: Pavia.) |
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| Additional information |
The Pavia mint — known in Carolingian documents as Papia — held particular strategic importance after Charlemagne's conquest of the Lombard kingdom in 774, and continued striking under his monetary reform of 793–794, when the weight standard for silver deniers was raised from roughly 1.2g to approximately 1.7g across the empire. That reform, enacted at the Council of Frankfurt, was among the most sweeping monetary interventions in early medieval Europe, effectively doubling the silver content of the penny and suppressing the lighter Merovingian-derived issues still circulating in Frankish territories.