The museum managed to buy a rare coin of Charlemagne for next to nothing on eBay

The Charlemagne Center Museum in Aachen purchased a rare silver denarius from the early 9th century on eBay. Only about fifty such coins are known. They are famous for the fact that they bear the image of the emperor and, in fact, are the only lifetime portraits of Charles.

The coin comes from a private collection in Normandy. It was out of sight of researchers for a long time, until the collector’s grandson, who inherited the collection, decided to sell off the coins. One of the residents of Aachen noticed the lot on eBay and reported it to the employees of the Charlemagne Center. They took part in the auction and eventually bought the coin. The museum did not disclose the price, but it is known that it does not exceed several thousand euros, while the expected price of such a coin on the numismatic market is not lower than 160 thousand euros.

In 781, by decree of Charlemagne, a monetary reform was carried out, according to which 240 coins worth one denarius were minted from a pound of silver (407–408 grams). On their obverse there was a cross and the inscription CARLVS REX FR[ancorum] “Charles the King of the Franks.” On the reverse there was a monogram of Charles and the name of the city where the coin was minted. More than thirty mints operated on the territory of Charles’s empire. When Pope Leo III made Charles emperor in 800, the change in title was reflected in the coins (KAROLUS IMP[erator] AUG[gustus]).

Since 804, Charles, imitating the Roman emperors, ordered the minting of coins with his own image. On the other side of the coins they began to depict a building with double columns, a triangular pediment and a cross at the top. Next to it is the inscription XRICTIANA RELIGIO (“Christian religion”). Numismatic experts usually refer to the structure depicted on the coin as a “temple,” but it is probably intended to represent the Edicule, a small chapel erected by Emperor Constantine the Great in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Its appearance on the coins of Charlemagne is due to the fact that Charles proclaimed himself “defender of the faith.”

Silver coins of Charlemagne with his image and Edicule were widespread and minted until his death in 814, but for unknown reasons very few have survived. The example acquired by the museum was issued by the mint in Aachen after the coronation of Charlemagne's son Louis the Pious as his father's co-ruler in September 813. The silver denarius has a diameter of 19 millimeters and weighs only 1.51 grams. These denarii served as gifts of honor rather than as means of payment. The death of Charlemagne four months later brought an end to their coinage.