2 Mark - Charles XI

Charles XI was only a child when these marks began striking — he acceded to the throne in 1660 at age four, and Sweden spent most of the 1660s governed by a regency council dominated by Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie. By 1668, when this type was introduced, the regency was already losing credibility through financial mismanagement and a series of disastrous foreign policy decisions that would eventually culminate in Charles assuming personal rule in 1672.

KM#260 spans the awkward transition from regency to royal authority — the same type issued under guardians and then under the king himself.