Sale: CNG 61, Lot: 2185. Estimate $10000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 25 September 2002.  Sold For $18000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PAPAL-CAROLINGIAN ROME. HADRIAN I. 772-795. AR Denaro (1.27 gm). Struck circa 781-795. HADRIANVS P^P>, bust of Hadrian facing; in field, I-B / VICTOR-IA DNN :., cross potent on two steps, flanked by R-m; in exergue, CONOB. MEC 1032; Muntoni I pg. 3, 1; Serafini I pg. 4, 3; CNI XV pg. 63, 5; Berman 210 (this plate coin). Extremely rare. EF, fine toning. ($10,000)

Ex Numismatica Ars Classica Auction 3, (17 September 1990), lot 650.

The threat to Rome by the Lombard king Desiderius coincided with Constantine V’s campaign against the Bulgarians and obliged Pope Hadrian to appeal to the son of Pepin the Short, Charlemagne, who crossed the Alps and laid a prolonged siege to the Lombard capital at Pavia, which surrendered in 774. Charlemagne then took for himself the crown of the Lombards, the title of patricius and confirmed the Patrimonium Petri, which now consisted of most of central Italy. It is significant that by this time the dating clause on Papal documents had been changed to the regnal year of Charlemagne instead of the eastern emperor and that the Frankish denier was introduced into Italy in about 781.