Denier - Robert and Adalbero of Laon

Laon occupied an unusual position in early Capetian France: its bishops held comital authority over the city and struck coin in their own names alongside those of the reigning king. This denier names both Bishop Adalbero — almost certainly Adalbero II, not the more famous Adalbero I who died in 988 — and Robert, meaning Robert II "the Pious." The pairing was a deliberate assertion of shared temporal and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, not mere ceremony. Laon's mint remained one of the most politically loaded in the region precisely because the crown repeatedly tried, and failed, to subordinate it.