Serial Entropy: Angouleme
Being the Tendency for Quality to Deteriorate Over Time

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Similar coins have often been produced over large number of years, often over a century or two. These commonly start off as the coinage of a royal issuer and are then immobilized over time. The incentive for a successive ruler to use the design of an earlier ruler is to help gain acceptance for the new coinage that was comparable to the initial coinage. The most common pattern for  the immobilized coinage to take is for it to experience gradual deterioration over time. By deterioration I mean the tendency for to move from silver to a base metal, or for size to decrease or for weight to decrease. This is the experience for the coins minted by the counts of Angouleme in the name of  Louis IV. MG cite a coin contemporary with Louis IV as weighing 1.76 grams, a solid weight for such later Carolingian coinage. (Parenthetically I'd note that Louis IV's coinage from other mints was much lighter than that from Angouleme.)  This immobilized coinage was found in Fecamp and continued to be minted into the 13th century. These three coins are arranged by my sense of their respective age, influenced by Poey d'Avant. These three coins follow the pattern of weight reduction from the first to the second and third, size reduction from the first to second and third, and metal quality from the first and second to the third.

Louis IV (immobilized 10th - early 11th C) Counts of Angouleme

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AR denier, 21mm, 1.33 gr. Obv: +LODOICVS, central cross, vertical S. Rev: +EGOLISSIME, small cross, four globes, retrograde Ss. Mint is Angouleme. MG 1646 legend match but their image shows a retrograde obverse S, weight cites as 1.68 gr. Dep 50 (six examples) with legend match but no weights and cites Dumas (975-80). Prou -; MEC -; Dup 942 as end of the 10th, first half of the 11th centuries but with a retrograde obverse S .Boud 445 grand denier with regular obverse S as per this coin. PdA 2644, plate LVII-2, weight 1.36 grams dates his coin to the first half of the 11th C. (I wonder how he would place this if he knew of the Fecamp hoard?) The style of the reverse cross places this as 2644, rather than the billon grand denier 2646. Dumas 8423 matches this legend exactly, with a size of 20mm and weight of 1.47gr. The other three similar  but not exact coins Dumas cites weigh 1.4, 1.33 and 1.48 grams. Dumas notes the continuity of  this type of coinage by observing "on ne constate pas de signe d'affaiblissement avant le 11th siecle." This coin is immobilized in the name of Louis IV. It is consistent weight-wise with the Fecamp hoard. It is also possible it is later, in the early 11th century. This specific coin can not be exactly dated but the exact legend match is consistent with 10th century coinage so I'll use it on the 'Birth of French Feudal Coinage' page.

Louis IV  ( immobilized - 12th C) Counts of Angouleme

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AR denier, 18mm, .57 gr. Obv: +LODOICVS, horizontal S, central cross. Rev: EGOLISSIME, horizontal Ss, very small central cross with four pellets. Mint: Angouleme. Roberts 1804 (as an immobilized coin); PdA 2659-60 (weight .98gr). PdA places this type in the second half of the 12th C. For similar coins see  CGB Monnaies V sale; items 781 and 782. This is a denier from COMTÉS D'ANGOULËME ET DE LA MARCHE - ANONYMES - (XIIème s.) described in 781. Denier anonyme, (XIIème-XIIIème siècles), c. 1180-1240, Angoulême, (Ar, 20 mm., 6 h., 0,98 g.). Boud.446v.

Louis IV (immobilized 12th - 13th C) Counts of Angouleme

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Bill denier, 18mm, .87gr. Obv: +LODOICVS, horizontal S, central cross. Rev: +EGOLISSIME, central cross, three annulets, one crescent. Mint is Angouleme. R4361 as 12-13th C, La Marche; PdA 2663 (LVII-6) and cites a weight of .98grams. PdA places this in the 13th century. Dup 947 places this 1170-1245. Not in Boud.