Denier - Pepin the Short

Pépin III deposed the last Merovingian king, Childeric III, in 751 with papal blessing — a transaction that reshaped both the Frankish throne and the relationship between Rome and the northern kingdoms for generations. His monetary reform, carried out around 755, abandoned the Merovingian tremissis tradition and established a heavier silver denier as the dominant Frankish denomination, a structural shift that would anchor European coinage for the next four centuries.

The reform explicitly tied coin weight to the pound, mandating 22 deniers per ounce — a ratio Charlemagne would later revise downward to 20.