Catalog
Solidus - Grimoald III
| Issuer | Duchy of Benevento |
|---|---|
| Year | 792-806 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Solidus |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Facing bust of Grimoald III, rendered in the Byzantine imperial tradition, depicted beardless with a crown surmounted by a cross and adorned with pendilia. The figure is shown in frontal view wearing a jewelled chlamys, with the face rendered in a stylised, hieratic manner characteristic of Lombard coinage of the late 8th century. The legend GRIM-VALD is disposed in two segments flanking the bust within a beaded border. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | GRIM - VALD (Translation: Grimoald.) |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Grimoald III ruled Benevento during one of the duchy's most precarious stretches — nominally a Frankish client after Charlemagne's Italian campaigns, yet minting gold in a Byzantine idiom that conspicuously ignored Carolingian authority. The solidus continued imitating Constantinople's monetary tradition precisely because southern Italian trade networks ran east, not north. Accepting Frankish overlordship politically while rejecting it monetarily was a calculated act.
The MEC I reference places this firmly within the transitional Lombard-Byzantine coinage sequence. Oddy's metallurgical analysis of related Beneventan solidi found gold fineness consistent with recycled Byzantine coin rather than fresh bullion.