The city of Cologne had been a place of mint from the 3rd century. The Romans had struck coins there as well as the Franks, the Merovingians, and the Carolingians. Hence it was only natural that the city remained a royal and imperial mint even after the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire during Ottonian times (936-1002). At that time a coin motif developed that would become typical for the Cologne pfennigs until the mid-11th century: on the one face a cross and on the other the name of the city, S(ancta) COLONIA A(grippinensis), on three lines.