20 Mark - Gustav II Adolf Type II

Gustav II Adolf was eighteen years old and barely a year into his reign when this piece was struck. Sweden was simultaneously at war with Denmark, Russia, and Poland — a fiscal environment that makes any large silver issue from this period worth examining with some skepticism about its true monetary function. Coins of this size and weight were instruments of state, not commerce.

The Type II designation distinguishes it from the Type I of the same year by differences in the crown punch above the arms — a detail documented in Ahlström's Swedish numismatic references and confirmed through die studies underlying the SM#39 classification.