Coins Struck by a Dead King

Why Engrave the Name of a Dead King?

In the feudal era, coinage had a curious custom. The names of long-dead kings or old designs were struck for decades, sometimes even for centuries. This is called an "immobilized type."

The practice began with the Carolingians. The coins of Louis the Pious initially copied the image of his father, Charlemagne, borrowing the empire's prestige. But after the royal authority crumbled, this practice froze into a continuation of borrowing the dead emperor's name. Why did this happen?

When the King's Silver Flowed Away

The currency that Charlemagne had re-established did not last long. In the second half of the ninth century, Viking longships sailed up the Seine and the Loire from the north, raiding towns.

In 845, when the Viking chief Reginherus plundered Paris, Charles the Bald of West Francia is said to have paid him seven thousand livres of silver and gold to make him withdraw; converted to weight, the sum is given as anything from two and a half tonnes to nearly six. This is considered the first tribute paid by the Franks. The tributes were repeated, and silver flowed one way out of the kingdom.

The king tried to regain control of the currency. In 864, Charles the Bald issued the Edict of Pîtres, attempting to limit minting to the palace and nine towns, ten places in all. It was a final attempt, but the flow did not stop. As the Carolingian dynasty declined, the right to strike coins dispersed to counts, bishops, and monasteries.

The Emperor's Name as a Brand

The fragmented rights to coinage numbered in the dozens, perhaps hundreds. Coins of local lords proliferated, such as the tournois of Tours and the parisis of Paris. Striking coins was a declaration of dominion and also a source of income, generating profit from seigniorage.

This leads back to that curious custom. Why continue to use old types? The reason was profit and loss. Merchants trusted familiar types as good money. Therefore, the lords who struck coins continued to borrow that trust by not changing the name or design.

Charlemagne's name, the temple type of Louis the Pious, the type from the silver-mining region of Melle. Mints across various regions continued to strike these templates for over a century. The dead king's name had, in a sense, become a brand. Even after central authority vanished, the memory of a bygone unity remained frozen on the coins.

What the Earth Tells of Silver's Journey

We can point to the physical destination of the silver that flowed away in tribute and plunder. In 1840, the Cuerdale Hoard was found on the banks of the River Ribble in northwest England. It contained some seven thousand coins, plus bullion and arm-rings, for a total of over eighty-six hundred items. The weight of the silver is reported to be between thirty-one and forty kilograms.

It was buried between approximately 903 and 910. The coins included a mix of Viking and Wessex currency, as well as Frankish, Byzantine, Islamic, and Papal coins. However, not all of this silver necessarily came from tribute bags. It was a mix of trade, plunder, and coins struck locally. Nevertheless, it is certain that Frankish and English silver was amassed in Viking hands and ended up buried in the soil of the distant north.