411, Lot: 516. Estimate $100. Sold for $65. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CAROLINGIANS. Charles le Simple (the Simple). As Charles IV, King of West Francia, 898-922. AR Obole (17mm, 0.48 g, 2h). Metalo (Melle) mint. + CΛRLVS REX R, cross pattée / MET/ΛLO in two lines. Depeyrot 631 var. (obv. legend); M&G –; MEC –; cf. Fécamp 8381-7 (denier). VF, toned, some weak strike.

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

Many hundreds of these oboles of Melle are known from the feudal period - they went on being minted as long if not longer than the comparable deniers - but this seems to be a rare if not unique specimen in that it includes a small cross between the two lines of the mint-name. [S. Coupland]