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Quarter solidus: CM.521-1998

An image of Quarter solidus

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Object information

Current Location: In storage

Maker(s)

Ruler: Louis the Pious (814-840)
Mint: Unspecified

Entities

Categories

Description

Cut-quarter of a gold solidus. Only some 15 official solidi of Louis are known, compared with some 80 imitations. The importance of this carefully divided quarter-coin is as evidence for the acceptance of solidi by tale rather than as mere bullion in the 9th century.

Notes

History note: Ex Spink sale 14 July 1998, lot 270 (not sold); found near Louth, Lincs, November 1996.

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bought (1998-10-12) by Taylor, Geoffrey

Dating

816 CE - 819 CE

Components of the work

Object composed of gold Diameter (min) 9.5 mm Diameter 14.1 mm Weight 1.16 g

References and bibliographic entries

Related exhibitions

Identification numbers

Accession number: CM.521-1998
Primary reference Number: 199635
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Monday 21 July 2014 Updated: Tuesday 26 March 2024 Last processed: Thursday 14 August 2025

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Coins and Medals

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2025) "Quarter solidus" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/199635 Accessed: 2025-11-16 00:02:49

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{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/199635 |title=Quarter solidus |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-11-16 00:02:49|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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<div class="text-center">
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        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/cm/cm58/cm_521_1998_1_201711_mfj22_dc2.jpg"
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        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Quarter solidus</figcaption>
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