Denarius, type 3, var 1 (MOLDVS)

Obverse

Obverse legend

Reverse legend

Reverse

CARo _ LVS (inscribed in two lines, one globule in the middle between the linked AR letters and the letter V).

MOLDVS (circular legend anti-clockwise and around a cross with a hollow in the center).

Coin sold by cgb.fr link to the sale and their website: https://www.cgb.fr/charles-ier-dit-charlemagne-denier-ttb,bca_421141,a.html.

Another copy preserved at the Münzkabinett der Staatlichen Museen of Berlin, link to the page of their website showing the photo of the coin:: http://www.smb-digital.de/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=2448410&viewType=detailView.

Yet another copy preserved at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (public domain), link to the page of their website showing the photo of the coin: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10442351b.r=charlemagne%20denier?rk=3218900;0.

Cgb.fr offers the legend MSVQDQ, possibly borrowed from old works. For my part, I think more likely that the legend should be read in the other direction. MSVQDQ is quite far from the names used for this city. MELODVS or METTALO. Considering the letters V and S which constitute the end of the name, we have a legend anti-clockwise. That sometimes happens for Carolingian coins... So I give the legend: MOLDVS or MOLOVS. It is difficult to dissociate the letters Q, O and D on this coinage. For example METTALO has a letter O with the shape of a letter Q .. I chose to write MOLDVS as the legend.

The coin illustrated here seems to have a small dot under the letter A ... globule? I considered, given that all the other specimens seen have a very clear globule, that this point is a small globule. However, the possibility that it is a simple die break is very high. Here is another coin sold by Chaponnière & Firmenich SA, where the globule is incontestable: https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=6503113.