411, Lot: 496. Estimate $300. Sold for $260. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CAROLINGIANS. Louis 'le Pieux' (the Pious). As Emperor Louis I, 814-840. AR Denier (22mm, 1.61 g, 5h). Class 3. Unspecified (Venice) mint. Struck 822-840. + HLVDOVVICVS IMP, cross pattée; pellets in quarters / XPISTIANA RELIGIO, temple façade. Coupland, Money, Group G; Depeyrot 1179; M&G 472; MEC 1, –. VF, toned, slight double strike on obverse.

From the Simon Coupland Collection. Ex Vinchon (31 May 2017), lot 265 (part of).

There are strong reasons for attributing this group of Christiana religio coins to the Venice mint (Coupland Group G, first published in 1990). The coins are characterized by the same broad, block-like lettering and flattened appearance that is found on the independent coinage struck at Venice with the legends Deus conserva Romanorum imperium and Christe salva Venecias. The use of HL and MP ligatures points to an Italian, and more specifically Venetian origin, since these are found on many of Louis’ mint-signed coins from Venice, but not issues from other mints. The stylistic attribution is confirmed by the find distribution. Many Group G coins were found alongside two independent Venetian coins in the Swiss Hermenches hoard, 11 were present in the Bavarian Freising hoard, and large numbers of single finds from the south west of the Frankish empire similarly point to an Italian mint. There is a stylistically similar group of Christiana religio coinage minted by Lothar I which can likewise be attributed to Venice. This particular specimen is struck on an unusually large flan, which might indicate it was struck under Louis II rather than Louis the Pious. [S. Coupland]