10 Kroner - Haakon VII Trial strike

Trial strikes from the Norwegian Mint in this period were produced to test die alignment, collar fit, and planchet behavior before committing to a full production run in the target metal. This piece precedes the circulating 10 Kroner gold issues that followed under Haakon VII, Norway's first king after the dissolution of the union with Sweden in 1905 — a separation achieved by referendum rather than war, which made the subsequent coinage program something of a deliberate nation-building exercise. The mint was still calibrating dies and production parameters when this was struck.