With the coinage of the Frankish king Theudebert I (533-548), a new monetary era began in Central Europe: Theudebert was the first Germanic ruler to issue gold coins in his own name. With this he officially broke the century-old monopoly of the Roman emperors on gold coinage, and thus manifested his imperial ambitions vis-à-vis the Eastern Roman emperor Justinian. DN THEODEBERTVS VIC reads the inscrition on the obverse of this coin: Dominus Noster Theudebert Victor (Our Lord Theudebert, Victor).