★ Extremely Rare ★

Lombards, Beneventum. Grimoald III and Charlemagne AV Solidus. AD 788-792. GRIM - ⧾ - VAL DX, crowned and bearded bust facing, wearing chlamys and holding globus cruciger / • DOMS (four pellets) CAR • RX • , cross potent on three steps; G-R across fields, VICA in exergue. LBSI 59; MIR 184; CNI p. 154, 1-2; BMC Vandals p. 170. 3.80g, 21mm, 6h.

Extremely Fine. Extremely Rare.

From a private UK collection;
Ex Numismatica Ars Classica AG, Auction 93, 24 May 2016, lot 1335;
Ex Lacam Collection, M. Dürr - R. Michel Auction, 8 November 1999, lot 293.

Grimoald was the younger son of Arichis II and the first duke to place his full name on the coinage of Beneventum. From 788-792 he was a vassal of the Frankish king Charlemagne and together they defeated the Byzantines in Sicily. In 792 he made a bid for independence and assumed the title of Princeps.