1/2 Joachimstaler - Christian III

Christian III struck this issue in 1537 — the same year he formally established Lutheranism as Denmark's state religion and imprisoned the Catholic bishops who had backed his rivals during the Count's Feud. The Joachimstaler format, borrowed from the Bohemian coins being struck at Joachimsthal since 1519, had spread rapidly across northern Europe as larger silver denominations became essential for trade and taxation at a scale that smaller medieval coinage couldn't handle.

The half-thaler denomination was never as commercially dominant as the full Joachimstaler but saw genuine circulation in the Baltic trade routes Denmark controlled.