411, Lot: 502. Estimate $100. Sold for $110. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CAROLINGIANS. Louis 'le Pieux' (the Pious). As Emperor Louis I, 814-840. AR Obole (16mm, 0.69 g, 2h). Class 3. Unspecified mint. Struck 822-840. + HLVDOVVICVS (IN)P, cross pattée; pellets in quarters / +PISTIΛNΛ REICIO, temple façade. Coupland, Money –; Depeyrot 1180; M&G 473; MEC 1, 809. VF, toned, a couple of traces of green deposits, slight edge chip. Rare.

From the Simon Coupland Collection, purchased from ebaY France, October 2013.

Oboles of Louis the Pious are considerably rarer than deniers. Pippin III and Charlemagne both struck these halfpennies, and Louis minted portrait oboles in at least seven mints and Class 2 oboles in at least 16, a list which is still growing. We cannot tell how many of the Christiana religio mints produced them, and they are so small that it is rarely possible to attribute them on stylistic grounds. The use of oboles in Louis’ reign is illustrated by a contemporary text written in Aquitaine in the 830s. In a tavern at Saint-Philibert-de-Grand-Lieu a pilgrim ordered half a penny’s worth of wine and paid with a denarius, but was mistakenly given a penny’s measure of wine and an obole (halfpenny) in change. This specimen is believed to have been found in the département of Ille-et-Vilaine. [S. Coupland]