1/2 Speciedaler - Christian IV Bust type I

Christian IV's bust coinage of the 1620s was struck against a backdrop of his ruinously expensive involvement in the Thirty Years' War — Denmark entered in 1625 as the self-appointed champion of Protestant Germany and exited seven years later having lost significant territory by the Treaty of Lübeck. The crown's finances never fully recovered, and the monetary output of this decade reflects both ambition and strain.

The "Type I" bust designation distinguishes this issue from later recutting of the royal portrait dies, a revision necessitated by normal die wear across a decade-long production run spanning multiple minting sessions.