The 'ODO' monogram of Odo /Eudes (887-898), and its peregrinations over the 10th and 11th centuries

This OP is long overdue (...well, along with another one that got long enough --with footnotes and bibliography-- to get really scary). But lately I've found a couple of coins that riff on one of the 'ODO' monograms of the 'Carolingian' (more like Robertian /proto-Capetian, and only by marriage) Odo.
(With thanks to @seth77, See This Thread: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/in-need-of-help-identifying-coin.382805/#post-7727992)
Odo /Eudes had defended Paris from the famous Viking siege of 885-6 (given conspicuous mention in a recent thread here, on the hoard of earlier Carolingian coins found in Poland a couple of months ago). This level of competence netted him election to the crown of France, at a point when the aristocracy were desperate enough to revert to the older Frankish tradition of elective monarchy, after several generations of Carolingian dynastic rule.
Just lately, this one turned up. Yep, dealer's pics; better than I'll ever do.


Carolingian /Robertian France. Odo /Eudes, king of the West Franks 887-898. Denier of Limoges. 1.81 grams; a correspondingly big, fat 24 mm.
Obv. "ODO" monogram, running top to bottom, incorporating cruciform, lozegy "O"s; two crosslets in the middle left and right fields.
(From 8 o'clock: ) +GRATIA D-I RE[X; the initial cross serving both as the beginning of the legend, and the last letter of the end].
Rev. +LIMOVICAS CIVIS; the concluding "S" retrograde.
Depeyrot (3rd ed., 2008) 511; cf. Nouchy, Eudes 24 (several legend variants).
The listing by .cgb (https://www.cgbfr.com/eudes-et-monnayage-immobilise-a-son-nom-denier-ttb-,bca_602306,a.html) cautions that this issue could be an early immobilization, into the earlier 10th century. But the weight compares very favorably to those noted by Depeyrot, in the penultimate edition of his survey. With 1,123 examples examined, the higher end ranges from 1.80 g, proceeding to a middle range in the 1.70s to the 1.50s, winding down to .93 --from an example in a major French collection. ...Depeyrot also cites hoards, noting that 105 examples were found in the Cuerdale Hoard, deposited c. 905 --leading one to think that a regnally contemporaneous issue should hardly be discounted out of hand.
Please also note the obverse legend, 'Gratia D[omin]i Rex;' by the grace of God, King. This perpetuates the formula adopted by Charles II in his massive issue following the Edict of Pitres in 865. (Please see below for more on that.)
...Granted, this was immobilized in Limoges, as an anonymous issue (feudal or civic? ...definitions of each? --See? More Work), well into the 13th century. And, along with several comparable French feudal issues, the original monogram suffered further indignities (more often the 'KAROLVS' of Charlemagne, perpetuated by his grandson, Charles II /'the Bald,' especially from the Edict of Pitres in 865) as it went along. Here's an example from the 11th century.


Immobilization of Limoges, vers 1020-1100 (Duplessy).
Obv. '+ODO+' monogram mostly reduced to four crosslets; "D" (very lightly struck in my example) still in the center.
+GIATIA D-I IE[X].
Rev. +LIM+VICAS CIIS. (Both legends degenerate versions of the issue of Odo.)
Duplessy 847 (...noting a couple of more common variants in 847A).
Over a comparable interval, the monogram went through more interesting permutations farther from home.
Here's a denar of the German boy emperor Otto III and his last regent, Adelheid. It's commonly dated c. 984-985, although it might be a decade later. Fun for being a coissue of Otto and the last of his sucessive regents; this time his grandmother, Adelheid, during an interval corresponding more closely to 991 until his eventual majority (at 14) in 994.


German empire; Otto III and Adelheid; denar (of Goslar?).
Obv. "ODDO" monogram. (...Coolly evoking the range from Otho to Odo to Otto to the modern French Eudes, along with the adaptation of the 'ODO' monogram in the more immediate context.)
(From 9 o'clock: ) +D-GR-A+REX.
(An interesting riff on the original Carolingian formula, 'GRATIA D-I REX,' from Eudes back to the Edict of Pitres in 865.)
Rev. Wooden church facade.
[+] ATE AHLHI (Adelheid).
Circle back nearer to home, but most of a century later, and you get this further permutation of the same monogram, from Guy I, Count of Ponthieu (in northeastern Francia), 1053-1100. (Yep, at least one of these was posted recently.)
In both the monograms on these examples (dealers' pics in both cases), you can just squint out the "O [/] T [/] O [/] ( device, occuring twice around a central crosslet. ...I suspect that since Guy, a vassal of William of Normandy (Bastard, Conqueror, and many other things, I'm sure), was already issuing coins in his own name (cf. some post of mine, which I'm too lazy to look up) --and could pick and choose his prototypes-- he wanted a measure of distance not only from living monarchs, but from any issue from his immediate neighborhood.



Please feel good about post anything involving monograms. Heck if I know... Byzantine (maybe with some lead seals); Hellenistic... or, better yet, something I never heard of.

 

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Very interesting write-up and great coins.

Here is a denar of Emperor Otto I, II or III of the mint of Esslingen. The name OTTO appears on the obverse and the reverse. I think this coin may be attributed to Emperor Otto I, the Great.




This denar is attributed to Emperor Otto II, 973-983 of the Cologne mint. His name appears as ODDO



This coin may be attributed to Otto I, 962-973. The mint is Mainz:


This denar dates to the 11th century. It was minted in Magdeburg. The name ODDO appears immobilized on the reverse.

 

Fantastic contributions, @Tejas!!! Bravo!!!
Gotta love that Magdeburg one. I have a few examples from there, including my only 12th-century bracteate, but one of Bernhard I of Sachsen (973-1011; probably Frisian) instantly comes to mind.

 

Nice, @+VGO.DVCKS !

ROMA MONOGRAM


Roman Republic
AR denarius
3.8g 18.0mm
T Didius
Rome 113-112 BCE
Roma, star, ROMA monogram -
Two Gladiators whip sword
Sear 171 Crawford 294-1

 

Massive thanks, @Alegandron. Yes, That's The Stuff!!!
Truly, I've never seen a Roman monogram --never mind RR-- like that.
With that as a point of departure, you can begin to glimpse the progression from Roman monograms, to Byzantine ones, to the Carolingian and post-Carolingian ones that ensue in western Europe. ...Who am I leaving out?

 

Here is one a bit earlier... I know the Greeks liked monograms.


Kings of Thrace,
Lysimachus,
323-281 BCE
AE14, 2.7g, 12h;
Lysimacheia mint.
Obv.: Young male head right, in crested Athenian helmet.
Rev.: BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΛYΣIMAXOY above and below forepart of lion right, EAM monogram to left, spearhead below.
Ref: SNG Cop 1159 var

 

Wow. Just, Wow. I'm starting to see the seamless continuity from Classical Greek to Byzantine. This is too good.

 

Very attractive exemplar. I think the coin was minted in my home region of Lüneburg - Bardowick.

 

I should look it up, @Tejas, but here in the land of Pacific time, I'm not even through the coffee yet. Yes, a whole lot of the 10th-11th c. stuff I've been getting lately has been from the general neighborhood, conspicuously including Bardowick. Very cool to talk with someone who's actually from there.