With the big day coming up soon (somewhere at the end of this month ), I went ahead and treated myself to a coin that I had been eyeing. Its already in hand so these are my own photos. The Carolingian silver deniers with the temple reverse and XPISTIANA RELIGIO legend are one of the most common Carolingian types, but still aren't cheap. The legend means 'Christian Religion' and has the Latin CH replace by the first two Greek letters for Christ's name: XP. This religiously-based coin type was to affirm the empire's Christianity. The temple itself is reminiscent of those found on Roman imperial coins, and may even have been based on them from found examples of those Roman coins, but with the cross in the temple instead of a pagan deity. To help symbolize the unity of the Frankish Empire by making the coinage more uniform, this type was minted without any mintmark or other reference to the cities in which they were struck. This type influenced other temple-reverse coinage, some of which were struck until the 14th century. Louis the Pious, King of the Franks and Carolingian Emperor (814-840 AD) AR Denier Obv: + H LVDOVVICVS IMP, legend around cross with pellets Rev: + XPISTIANA RELIGIO, legend around temple, cross in temple Unknown mint, struck 822-840 AD Ref: MEC 794 (click photo to enlarge)
Wow Jango => apparently you're hooked on the Carolingians, eh?! (I love 'em too) Happy Birthday, in advance!! (what are you turning 20, or somethun like that?!) Keep-up the awesome collection (you definitely have a sweet hold on a niche-market ... good on ya, lil' brother!!)
Thanks for the comments Mat and Steve, glad you lke the coin! Steve, your not too far off I'll be 22 soon
Thanks bing A correction btw in the obverse legend: it's + HLVDOVVICVS IMP, not + H LVDOVVICVS IMP. The H was a part of a variation of his Latin name.
A very nice example of the type, VK. Well-done! You're probably familiar with this page already, but if not, it's a good read that explores the possible connections between Roman campgates and various Carolingian architectural reverse types. I stumbled across it a few months ago when I was researching campgate varieties... http://home.eckerd.edu/~oberhot/campgate.htm
Nice coin, VK, and happy birthday. The more I kook at Frankish coins, the more I am tempted. Frankish territories included parts of the area in which i now live.
I had read it once but lost the link. Thanks for posting it John! I also have a very interesting link about Roman and Byzantine coins being used as models by the Carolingians for their own coinage: http://www.nederlandsemunten.nl/Art...A_Rare_Coin_of_Thrasemundus_of_Maastricht.htm Thank a lot for the happy birthdays guys!
If I was just starting out collecting ancients without any knowledge about Carolingian coinage, I would probably think this denier of Charlemagne was a Roman imperial coin. (Not my coin btw )
