Denier - Pepin the Short Cambrai mint

Pépin III seized the Frankish throne in 751 after Pope Zacharias sanctioned the deposition of the last Merovingian king, Childeric III, who was shorn and packed off to a monastery. The coinage reform that followed was modest by later Carolingian standards — it was Pépin's son Charlemagne who would truly overhaul the Frankish monetary system — but Pépin's deniers represent the first issues struck under a dynasty that would define medieval Europe for generations. Cambrai, a bishopric with deep Frankish ties, operated as one of several regional minting authorities under his reign.