20 Skilling - Christian VIII

Christian VIII authorized a dedicated colonial coinage for the Danish West Indies — St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John — partly to address the chronic shortage of reliable small currency in the islands and partly to assert administrative control over a currency supply that had long relied on a chaotic mix of Spanish, Dutch, and Danish coins. The 20 Skilling was struck at the Copenhagen mint across several years of his reign, which ended abruptly with his death in January 1848 and the revolution that followed within weeks.

The .625 fineness placed it below standard Danish metropolitan coinage, a deliberate policy for colonial issues of the period.