1 Joachimstaler - Christian III

Christian III struck this taler in 1537, the same year he formally established Lutheranism as Denmark's state religion and imprisoned the Catholic bishops who had opposed his seizure of the throne during the Count's War. The Joachimstaler denomination itself takes its name from the Joachimsthal mines in Bohemia, where the large silver coins were first produced in 1519 — the word "dollar" traces directly back to these pieces through centuries of linguistic drift.

Danish taler production in this period drew heavily on silver from the Sound Tolls, the dues levied on every ship passing through the Øresund strait. At their peak those tolls funded a significant share of the Crown's expenditure.