And Now Something Completely Different: Pseudo Coin Brooches

I want to show something that was normal during all the ages of coin use. A coin was, certainly in ancient times, for example under Roman rule, a method of propaganda. On one side the family name of the two senators or in the imperial times, the emperor. On the reverse a message for the Roman people that showed the power or the prosperity of the state.
To keep the idea of unity or an idea of solidarity with the state close, people started using coins as brooches, necklaces or other kinds of jewelry. This practice is still applied today.

I already showed an example of a Roman coin key-chain, probably made during the 1st century AD, to keep Rome close to the outpost the maker was stationed.
Beside the practice to convert existing coins from the circulation into jewelry, there also was the practice to imitate the coins purely to make brooches out of them. In most cases the obverse of the host coin was imitated for decorating the brooch.

In the later early medieval period, The Netherlands were conquered by the Carolingian's. The Carolingian emperors: Charles the Great, Louis 1 and Charles the Bald were minting portrait coins on a small scale. On a very small scale gold coins were minted. Especially these coins were imitated by the medieval inhabitants of what is now the Netherlands.

These coins were crudely imitated in gold by the Frisians, for several decades after the death of the emperor. For example; the youngest exemplar of a Louis the pious coin I've excavated was from the late 10th century. (see: the gold example)
The people imitating the coins probably couldn't read or write. The legend often read a series of I's and V's. As is seen on the example.

Next to gold exemplars, also silver coins were used. sometimes with a thin layer of gold. The poor people who wanted to decorate their clothes with a nice brooch used lead or pewter.