2 Mark Dansk - Frederik III

Frederik III's reign saw Denmark humiliated by the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658, forcing the cession of Scania, Blekinge, and other Swedish-held territories in one of the most damaging territorial losses in Danish history. The timing of this issue sits squarely within that crisis, and the subsequent Swedish siege of Copenhagen in 1658–1660 nearly ended the kingdom altogether. That Denmark survived as an independent state owes much to Dutch naval intervention and a last-minute relief fleet.

Frederik leveraged the near-collapse to abolish the nobility's tax exemptions and establish hereditary absolute monarchy in 1660 — a constitutional revolution conducted without a shot fired.