253, Lot: 458. Estimate $500. Sold for $1500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CAROLINGIANS. Pépin 'le Bref' (the Short). King of the Franks, 754/5-768. AR Denier (11mm, 0.87 g, 2h). Chelles mint. Large +RI; bar above / Large retrograde [K]AS across fields; bar above. Depeyrot 310 var. (cross above A); M&G 72 var. (same); Depeyrot, Denier 14 var. (shape of S - attributed to uncertain Merovingian mint); Belfort 6636 var. (same). VF, some porosity, very minor die deterioration.

Beginning as “mayors of the palace” under the preceding Merovingian kings, the Carolingians became kings of the Franks in their own right, and, under Charlemagne (AD 768-814), reestablished an emperor in the West. Although the dynasty’s name is derived from Charles Martel, who defeated the Moors at the Battle of Tours in AD 732, its founder was Saint Arnulf, bishop of Metz and the first of the “mayors of the palace” at the Merovingian court. In AD 751, Pépin le Bref (the Short) removed the last Merovingian king, Childeric III, and was declared king in his own right. But it was Pépin’s son, Charlemagne, who expanded Carolingian power to its greatest extent.

In Frankish tradition, Pépin’s kingdom was divided upon his death between his two sons, Charlemagne and Carloman; at Carloman’s death three years later, Charlemagne became sole King of the Franks, and over the next three decades expanded Frankish power. Attempting to create an emperor in the west as a counterbalance to the Byzantine Empire, Pope Stephen II crowned Charlemagne as Emperor of the Romans on Christmas Day, AD 800. From this beginning, the Holy Roman Empire would be formed and the title which would continue to be held by its rulers until 1806.

In AD 814 Charlemagne’s son, Louis, became sole ruler of the kingdom, but his reign was beset by numerous rebellions. Upon his death in AD 840, the division of the kingdom among his three sons, Lothar, Louis the German, and Charles the Bald, signaled the end of Carolingian unity. Civil war broke out among the three heirs, and at the resolution achieved with the Treaty of Verdun in AD 843, the empire was split into three regions: West Francia, Middle Francia, and East Francia. The western portion became the nucleus of later France, which eventually the Capetian kings would rule. East Francia became Germany and the Holy Roman Empire; the Carolingians who ruled there until AD 911 were succeeded by a Saxon dynasty, commonly referred to as the Ottonians, who consciously modeled themselves as Carolingian successors. Middle Francia, the weakest of the three, was soon divided and absorbed by both West and East Francia.