ITALY. Papal Coinage. John IX, 898-900. Denaro (Silver, 19 mm, 1.40 g, 5 h), in the name of Lambert, Holy Roman Emperor (891-898), January-October 898. S / C / S – P/ET/RV/S Half-length bust of St. Peter, wearing mantum and stole, facing slightly to left, holding cross-tipped scepter. Rev. + LANTVERT MP around monogram of IOHANS. Berman 52. CNI 1. MEC 1, 1063. Muntoni 1. Very rare. An attractively toned and unusually complete example of this historically interesting issue. Good very fine.



Pope Formosus died on 4 April 896 amidst power struggles involving the Papacy, the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Kingdom of West Francia, and the Holy Roman Empire. What followed was a period of bitter infighting, with his successor, Boniface VI, dying after just two weeks in office. The next pope, Stephen VI, conducted the infamous Cadaver Synod, during which the decayed corpse of Formosus was indicted, convicted, mutilated, and cast into the Tiber. This outrageous act would soon come back to haunt Stephen, however, as he was imprisoned and strangled in the summer of 897. The following pope, Romanus, was deposed after only three months, and was succeeded by Theodore II, who had Formosus' body exhumed from its secret burial at Portus harbor. Yet Theodore, too, died in office after a reign that lasted only twelve or twenty days - depending on the source - in December 897.

In January 898, John IX was elected as Theodore's successor. A native of Tivoli near Rome, John sought to reconcile the warring factions within the Papacy. In foreign affairs, he sided with Lambert of Italy against Arnulf of Carinthia in the struggle for control of the Holy Roman Empire, striking coins featuring Lambert's name alongside his own monogram. However, Lambert died on 15 October 898, and John himself followed just fifteen months later, plunging Rome into further turmoil. It would take several decades before the Papacy regained stability. Between 872 and 965, two dozen popes ruled the Holy See, and in the most turbulent years between 896 and 904, a new pope was elected on average every year.