1/2 Öre - Sigismund of Poland Type II

Sigismund III Vasa held the Swedish throne for barely five years before his uncle Charles deposed him in 1599, ending the only Polish-Lithuanian union Sweden would ever experience. These small billon pieces were struck throughout that turbulent regency period, during which Sigismund spent most of his reign in Poland and governed Sweden largely through surrogates — an arrangement that eroded his support among the Swedish nobility and Lutheran clergy who distrusted his Catholicism.

The Type II designation distinguishes this emission from the earlier issue by die arrangement. Sigismund was formally deposed at the Linköping Bloodbath's prelude, and Charles IX ordered his coinage withdrawn from circulation shortly after.