Denier - Charles II / Charles III Metz mint

Metz was one of the pivotal minting centers of the Carolingian world, and the deniers struck there under Charles II (the Bald) and his successor Charles III (the Simple) span one of the dynasty's most fractured periods — the partition treaties of Verdun in 843 and Meerssen in 870 repeatedly reassigned Lotharingia between competing heirs, and with it, control of the mint. The question of which "Charles" authorized a given die is not always cleanly resolved, which is why the standard references bracket these issues across both reigns.

Kluge's attribution to the broader Carolingian series and the multiple Gariel plate references reflect genuine die variation within the type, not cataloging redundancy.