Denarius of Charlemagne

An extremely rare silver coin featuring Charlemagne was discovered in 2022 on eBay. It is one of the few known portraits made of Charlemagne during his lifetime. It found its way to a museum in Germany. The coin depicting Charlemagne carries his imperial title: IMP(erator) AVG(ustus), a reference to Emperor Augustus, a title used by many emperors of the Roman Empire, whom Charlemagne was trying to emulate. Charlemagne (ruled A.D. 768 to 814), was king of the Franks and became the first ruler to unite Western and Central Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Charlemagne was crowned emperor of the Romans on Christmas day in A.D. 800. There are only about 50 denarii coins bearing a portrait of Charlemagne created in his lifetime known. This example made 6,150 euros.