D.609 Louis the Pious (denier, Melle, class 2)

Louis the Pious, king of the Franks and Holy Roman emperor (813-840)
Denier (Melle, class 2, 819-822)

Silver, 1.48 g, 20 mm diameter, die axis 3 h

O/ +HLVDOVVICVS IMP; cross pattée
R/ META / . / LLVM

Louis' deniers correspond to his father's (Charles the Great) ``novus denarius'', whose weight is supposed to be near 1.7 g with a certain variability.

This denier is typical of Class 2 of Louis' coinage (819-822).
A circular inscription of the name of the ruler surrounds a cross pattée on the observe. The quite surprising Hlvdovvicvs initially comes from the germanic name Chlodowig ("Clovis"). This one was first transcribed to latin as Chlodowicvs. The initial C then disappeared, which explains the H at the beginning. The w(=vv) finally became a standard v, which gave Lvdovicvs (Louis). The imperial title imp is also given.

The reverse consists of the mint name, in field. The mint name may be split in 2 or 3 lines.