Un Pépin sur la Garonne ?

Abstract

This publication provides the opportunity to revisit the Carolingian coinage produced at Toulouse during the years 840–850. It is to the middle of that decade that belongs a numismatic find at Auzeville (Haute-Garonne, near Toulouse) in 1878, which is of supreme interest for the light it throws on this mint. The treasure there found, consisting of approximately one thousand pieces, was partly dispersed and melted down, but the hundred coins that have come down to us furnish a wealth of information. There have already been two studies on this hoard, to which is now added a third looking more specifically at the supply to the Toulouse mint during the transition between the reigns of Pippin II of Aquitaine (839-852) and Charles the Bald (840–877). Which of these two kings struck the first coin at Toulouse? Did they both use the same stock of silver? Is it possible to trace its provenance? We shall attempt to answer these three questions, chiefly on the basis of elementary and isotopic analyses carried out on specimens from the Auzeville hoard preserved in the medal cabinets of Paris and Brussels, and at the Paul-Dupuy Museum in Toulouse. Particular focus will be placed on the diffusion of silver from Melle, the main source of silver in Carolingian territory, which was especially active in the 9th century and located, like Toulouse, in the kingdom of Aquitaine.

Keywords

• Auzeville hoard
• Carolingian coinings
• Charles the Bald
• elementary analyses
• Pippin II of Aquitaine
• stock of minted silver