Melle but not Melle? A mine’s mint as a hub for Carolingian silver coinage recycling

Abstract The mines at Melle in Deux‐Sèvres, France, are known as the only significant source of silver for the early Middle Ages until the 10th century. Though it was not a major locality, the settlement possessed a mint in the Merovingian period that became one of the major centres of coin production under the Carolingians in the ninth century. Following the decrease in Carolingian power and increase in the autonomy of local authorities from c .900, the counts of Poitou started minting a coinage in the name of Melle that remained with the same typology for the next two hundred years. This paper presents an examination of the trace elements (Au and Bi) determined by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA‐ICP‐MS) in nearly 2000 silver coins covering four centuries over the Merovingian, Carolingian and Feudal periods. It has two main objectives: first, identifying the patterns of trace elements for the coinages attributed to Melle by comparing them with those of the same periods from other mints; and second, establishing the general evolution of the trace elements in coins from Poitou and other areas are scrutinized to evaluate the contribution of fresh silver from Melle, in order to identify the silver stocks available. One main result is that part of the silver minted at Melle in the ninth century does not present the trace element patterns that characterize Melle silver, suggesting the use of the Melle mint as a hub for coining not only local silver from the mines but also for recycling and refining silver previously coined elsewhere.