Denier - Pepin the Short Amiens mint

Pépin III seized the Frankish throne in 751 after engineering the deposition of the last Merovingian king, Childeric III, with papal sanction from Zacharias — the first time a sitting pope had legitimized a dynastic coup of that scale. The coinage reform that followed was gradual and incomplete; Pépin's deniers show significant mint-to-mint variation in weight and fabric, reflecting a monetary system still consolidating authority rather than enforcing uniformity.

The Amiens attribution for this piece rests on comparative typology rather than explicit mint signatures, which is why the major references leave their catalog numbers blank. Chwartz 50 remains the sole anchor.