1 Speciedaler - Oscar I

Oscar I ascended to the Norwegian throne in 1844 following the death of his father Karl Johan, and this Speciedaler series covers the middle decade of his reign — a period marked by cautious liberal reforms and growing Norwegian nationalist sentiment that would eventually drive the push for dissolution of the Swedish-Norwegian union. The Kongsberg mint, which struck these pieces, had been operating since 1686 and drew its silver directly from the Kongsberg mines, one of the richest silver deposits in northern Europe.

By the 1840s those mines were in steep decline, and dwindling domestic silver supply complicated production throughout the series.