1 Ungersk Gyllen - Erik XIV

Erik XIV struck this piece during one of the most turbulent stretches of Swedish sixteenth-century rule. By 1568, his mental instability had become politically untenable — he had personally ordered the murder of several members of the Sture family the previous year during a psychotic episode — and his brother John was organizing the rebellion that would depose him that autumn. The coin was minted into a reign already collapsing.

Surviving examples are genuinely scarce. Erik was imprisoned in September 1568 and died in captivity in 1577, almost certainly poisoned.