Catalog
Tremessis Lucques
| Issuer | Lombardy and Tuscany |
|---|---|
| Year | 700-749 |
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| Orientation | Variable alignment ↺ |
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| Obverse description | Concentric double-circle design in the Lombard hammered tradition. The outer annular band bears the retrograde Latin legend FLAVIA LVCA, identifying the mint city of Lucca, with letters arranged radially and sometimes inverted. Within the inner circle, a prominent six-petaled rosette with a central pellet radiates symmetrically, its petals rendered in bold relief characteristic of early medieval Italian gold coinage. A small cross potent surmounts the inner circle at the top, serving as a dividing mark between the legend segments. The overall composition is contained within a raised border, the irregular flan typical of eighth-century hammered tremisses. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Lucca was among the most productive Lombard mints for tremisses during the early eighth century, operating under royal authority at a time when the Lombard kingdom was consolidating control over northern and central Italy in direct competition with Byzantine enclaves. The city's mint output from this period is documented across a range of die pairings, and MIR 87 represents one of the better-defined types within that sequence.
Lombard gold tremisses circulated primarily in commercial and fiscal transactions rather than everyday exchange — their weight standard derived loosely from the late Roman tremissis but had drifted considerably by this period.