France, 987-996 AD., Hugh Capet, Petrol company advertising reproduction "Collection BP" produced ca. 1970-90 AD., Denier repro.

France, Hugh Capet as King of the Franks (941-996), modern Petrol company advertising reproduction "Collection BP II", no date, similar genuine pieces struck 987-996 AD., produced ca. 1970-90 AD.,
Denier repro (ø 20-21 mm / 3,84 g), white metal or lead alloy, genuine pieces show ca. 1,2 g. silver, axes coin alignment ↑↓ (180°),
Obv.: + GRATIA DII REX F , legend around HVGO -monogram - HVGO en monogramme dans le champ. + GRATIA DII REX F en légende circulaire.
Rev.: II - LE TRESOR DES ROIS DE FRANCE / COLLECTION BP // 6 / HUGUES CAPET / 987-996 / DENIER , circular and central legend.
(original reverse: + / PARISI / CIVITA / + , PARISI CIVITA en deux lignes, séparées par un grènetis; au-dessus et au-dessous, une croisette).
more about this reproduction series: http://www.worldofcoins.eu/forum/index.php/topic,23280.0.html ; - for the rare genuine coin model cf.: based on a fantasy model ?

Hugh Capet (c. 941 – 24 October 996), called in contemporary sources "Hugh the Great" (Latin: Hugo Magnus), was the first "King of the Franks" of the namesake Capetian dynasty from his election in 987 until his death; he succeeded the last Carolingian Louis V.
The son of Hugh the Great, Duke of France, and Hedwige of Saxony, daughter of the German king Henry the Fowler, Hugh was born in 941. His paternal family, the Robertians, were powerful landowners in the ÃŽle-de-France. His grandfather had been King Robert I. His grandmother Beatrice was a Carolingian, a daughter of Herbert I of Vermandois. This makes him the fifth great-grandson of Charlemagne through Pepin of Italy. King Odo was his grand-uncle and King Rudolph the son-in-law of his grandfather, King Robert I.

Hugh Capet was born into a well-connected and powerful family with many ties to the reigning nobility of Europe. But Hugh's father was never king. When Rudolph died in 936, Hugh the Great organised the return of Louis d'Outremer, son of Charles the Simple, from his exile at the court of Athelstan of England. Hugh the Great's motives are unknown, but it is presumed that he acted to forestall Rudolph's brother, Hugh the Black, Duke of Burgundy, from attempting to take the French throne, or to prevent it from falling into the hands of Herbert II of Vermandois or Richard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy.

In 956, Hugh inherited his father's estates and became one of the most powerful nobles in the much-reduced kingdom of West Francia. As he was not yet an adult, his mother acted as his guardian, and young Hugh's neighbours took advantage. Theobald I of Blois, a former vassal of Hugh's father, took the counties of Chartres and Châteaudun. Further south, on the border of the kingdom, Fulk II of Anjou, another former client of Hugh the Great, carved out a principality at Hugh's expense and that of the Bretons.
The realm in which Hugh grew up, and of which he would one day be king, bore no resemblance to modern France. Hugh's predecessors did not call themselves kings of France, and that title was not used by his successors until the time of his descendant, Philip II. Kings ruled as rex Francorum ("King of the Franks") and the lands they ruled comprised only a small part of the former Carolingian Empire. The eastern Frankish lands, the Holy Roman Empire, were ruled by the Ottonian dynasty, represented by Hugh's first cousin Otto II and then by Otto's son, Otto III. The lands south of the river Loire had largely ceased to be part of the West Francia kingdom in the years after Charles the Simple was deposed in 922. Both the Duchy of Normandy and the Duchy of Burgundy were largely independent, and Brittany entirely so—although from 956 Burgundy was ruled by Hugh's brothers Otto and Henry.