The Kingdom of Cologne and the early Frankish silver coinage

Abstract

This paper presents a new catalogue of the Merovingian silver coins (argentei) found in the early 20^th century in the cemeteries of Cologne-Rodenkirchen (34 hitherto unpublished coins) and Bonn-Schwarzrheindorf (26). The many (partly external) die links provided by the argentei from both cemeteries, and the analyses of the composition of some of the coins, make it likely that some issues are a local production that took place in Cologne between the mid-5th and the mid-6^th century. These results permit us to consider the Kingdom of Cologne as a major minting authority in early Merovingian Gaul, where the beginnings of the Frankish coinage have traditionally been attributed to Clovis. Hence, the Roman legacy may have been a source of rivalry between the Ripuarian and the Salian Franks until Cologne lost its political significance after the mid-6^th century.