The First Coinage of Pisa

CNG 103, Lot: 962. Estimate $25000. Sold for $21000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LOMBARDS, Tuscany. Municipal coinage. Circa 700-750. AV Tremissis (16mm, 1.31 g, 6 or 12h). Pisa mint. + FLAVIA PI YA C, stellate symbol within circle; leaves in voids / VIVIVIV VIVIVIV, cross potent; star above and below. Bernareggi, Tremissi –; Bernareggi, Moneta 16; Bernareggi 209; BMC Vandals p. 150, note 1; cf. MEC 1, 319 (Lucca); CNI XI 1 = MIR 385. EF, areas of light toning, hint of deposits, die rust, and weak strike on obverse. Extremely rare.

Little is known for certain regarding the series of rare Lombardic municipal tremisses. Early scholarship suggests two differing chronologies: either the series was struck shortly before and shortly after the Lombardic conquest of the region, or by Charlemagne in the chaotic period following the capture of Desiderius. Bernareggi (Moneta Langobardorum, p. 85-91) evaluates these theories and suggests a third, more reasonable alternative, based on the progressive decline in weights. He suggests that the series of “starred tremisses,” bearing the names of cities but not of rulers, were issued circa 700-750, at a time when the Lombardic kings exercised only weak authority over the cities of the Po Valley.

Neither can the legends be firmly interpreted. The obverse on these tremisses bears the name of a Tuscan city, along with the word FLAVIA. Various interpretations have been proposed: one that it is a traditional poetic civic honorific bearing some relation to the name of the ancient gens Flavia, that it indicates the cities followed the Jus Civile Flavianum, or that it indicates the right to issue these civic coins solely belongs to the king. Bernareggi (op cit., p. 102–4) notes that the title FLAVIA is also an epithet used by the Lombardic kings, and proposes that it represented a way for the Tuscan cities to maintain their strong traditions of autonomy while still acknowledging the Lombardic kings.