½ Portugaloser – Denmark

In 1653, Denmark operated under a bimetallic monetary system, a legacy of the 1625 ordinance that established both silver rigsdaler and copper dalen as official currencies. However, the system was under significant strain. The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) had severely depleted the royal treasury, leading King Frederik III's government to engage in repeated currency debasements. By lowering the silver content in coins while maintaining their face value, the crown sought to generate short-term revenue, but this eroded public trust and sparked inflation, harming both commerce and ordinary citizens.

The situation was further complicated by the widespread circulation of foreign coins, particularly German and Dutch, which were often of more reliable weight and purity than the debased domestic issues. This led to Gresham's Law in practice, where "bad money drives out good"; people hoarded the older, full-value Danish coins and foreign specie, using the poorer new coins for daily transactions. The result was a chaotic and inefficient market where the actual value of a coin depended heavily on its minting date and origin, hindering trade and economic stability.

This monetary instability occurred against a backdrop of deepening political and financial crisis for the Danish monarchy. The costly wars and the crown's growing debts would culminate just a few years later, in 1660, in a dramatic political revolution where the estates, frustrated by the economic mismanagement, would nonetheless grant Frederik III absolute power. The chaotic currency situation of 1653 was thus a key symptom of the broader state crisis that ultimately transformed Denmark from an elective monarchy into an absolute monarchy.