Charlemagne or Charles the Bald

CNG 87, Lot: 1336. Estimate $300. Sold for $650. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CAROLINGIANS. Charlemagne (Charles the Great) or Charles le Chauve (the Bald) . As Charles I, King of the Franks, 768-814 or as Charles II, King of West Francia, 840-877. AR Denier (19mm, 1.42 g, 9h). Melle mint. Struck 793/4-812, or 840-877. +CΛRLVS REX FR, cross pattée / +METVLLO, Karolus monogram. Coupland, Charlemagne -; Depeyrot 606; M&G 1063; MEC 1, 923-33. EF.

New research by Guillaume Sarah (“Charlemagne, Charles the Bald, and the Karolus Monogram Coinage,” in NC 2010) indicates that monogram deniers with the legend CΛRLVS REX FR were struck as late as the reign of Charles le Chauve. While Sarah’s metallurgical analyses identified particular issues, without hoard provenance, or until a die study is completed, attribution of these issues of Melle to either Charles is not possible.