Numismatic Puzzle: A Rebellious Mint Master

This denarius of Louis the Pious was minted in Venice, as its reverse reveals. However, the lagoon city wasn’t even ruled by the Carolingians – in fact, it defended itself fiercely against the Frankish attacks! How is this possible? Well, maybe the Carolingian silver coin testifies to a plot of the Venetian mint master against his doge. The detailed explanation of this story reads like a detective story and gives background information on Venice’s early times, you can read it in our article “How Saint Mark Came to Venice”.