3 Speciedaler - Frederik III

Frederik III issued these heavy specie coins during the closing phase of the Dano-Swedish Wars, a period when the Danish-Norwegian crown was under existential military pressure. Charles X Gustav of Sweden had pushed deep into Jutland and briefly crossed the frozen belts to threaten Copenhagen itself in early 1658. The subsequent Treaty of Roskilde was among the most damaging in Danish history, stripping Norway of Trondheim — temporarily, as it turned out — and costing Denmark its Scanian provinces permanently.

The 1659–1660 dating places this coin squarely in the follow-on conflict, the Dano-Swedish War of 1658–1660, when Frederik III was scrambling to finance a defense and, ultimately, a partial recovery. Trondheim was retaken by Norwegian forces under Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve in 1660, just as this coin was being struck.