Denier - Pepin the Short Lyon mint

Pépin III seized the Frankish throne in 751 after engineering the deposition of the last Merovingian king, Childeric III, with papal backing from Zachary — a transaction that fundamentally reorganized both political and ecclesiastical authority in the West. His monetary reform, likely enacted around 755, imposed stricter weight standards on Frankish silver and brought previously autonomous minting operations under tighter royal control. The Lyon workshop operated under this reformed regime, though the degree of centralization achieved in practice varied considerably across the realm.