Denier - Pepin the Short Besancon mint

Pépin III seized the Frankish throne in 751 with papal blessing — the first Carolingian king, having deposed the last Merovingian, Childeric III, who was tonsured and sent to a monastery. The Besançon mint operated under Pépin's currency reforms, which attempted to standardize silver coinage across a fragmented monetary inheritance left by the late Merovingian period. That reform effort would be completed more ruthlessly by his son Charlemagne, but the groundwork — heavier, more consistently struck deniers — begins here.

The absence of a Prou catalog number signals how poorly documented this specific type remains in the foundational literature.