By JeandAcre December 1, in Medieval. Depeyrot, 3sieme ed. With inexorable, often rapid deterioration of the prototype. This was already happening as soon as the late 9th century. The monograms themselves, while differing widely from the almost paradigmatic Carolingian antecedent, are no less distinctively of the period. Denier of Limoges. Cross, pellet and annulet in two angles. Depeyrot Watch this. Duplessy , A.
At this juncture, the variants are just too numerous; Duplessy effectively throws up his hands. Returning to the 10th century, in the nascent German empire, the Ottonians are riffing on the same motif. Denar of Goslar. Dannenberg May the record show that if Anyone wanted to fling Anything medieval onto this so far ostensible thread, you would instantly garner my, for one, cordial thanks. This coin came out of a Heritage auction. I posted it in a prior thread, but perhaps it is worth a second look in light of the peculiar monogram.
I rotated the picture of the obverse to give two perspectives on the monogram. I think it is clear that the die cutter neglected to cut the mirror image of the desired result into the die as would be proper, thus the monogram is completely reversed on the resultant coin. All the other lettering is correct, though. Is this an error, or a deliberate change? The same is true on the coin of Amiens, above. Classical Latin had little use for the letter K except in words borrowed directly from Greek.
Was the engraver classicizing the monogram? Some monogram pieces I have. I had some interest here but never got deep into them. This was before I accepted raw coins, so all of them sit in NGC slabs, as they are relatively little things. I have an attribution number: but not sure what that is. I notice the monogram has the bottom L facing left, not right.
Pretty crude coin with a mushy monogram. I enjoy it because of the ties to Emma of Normandy, her kids, and William 1. I'm not sure, but I think there is a case that this type with the wide spacing of the letters below was minted under the rule of Charlemagne, rather than Charles the Bald.
