# Charlemagne Coin [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [PRE-ROMANESQUE SCULPTOR, German]() - Date: 0851-0900 - Technique: Silver ## Commentary The use of cast-metal pieces as a medium of exchange is very ancient and probably developed out of the use in commerce of ordinary ingots of bronze and other metals that possessed an intrinsic value. Until the development of bills of exchange in medieval Europe and paper currency in medieval China, metal coins were the only such medium. The picture shows a coin of Charlemagne with the inscription KAROLVS IMP AVG \(Karolus Imperator Augustus\). Charlemagne \(Charles the Great\) was the King of the Franks from 768, the King of Italy from 774, and from 800 the first emperor in western Europe since the collapse of the Western Roman Empire three centuries earlier. ## Related artworks - [Door \(detail\)]() - [Door-handle]() - [Equestrian statue]() - [Picture stone]() - [Three scribes at work]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()