Christian V came to power in 1670 inheriting a monarchy fundamentally transformed by the Lex Regia of 1665 — the most absolutist constitutional document in European history, which vested hereditary sovereign power in the Danish crown in perpetuity. This four-mark piece belongs to the first decade of his reign, a period when the new absolutist order was being physically impressed onto every institution, including the coinage.
The .671 fineness reflects a deliberate debasement from earlier Danish silver standards, part of broader fiscal adjustments following the ruinous wars with Sweden that had nearly erased Denmark as an independent state in the 1650s.
Christian V came to power in 1670 inheriting a monarchy fundamentally transformed by the Lex Regia of 1665 — the most absolutist constitutional document in European history, which vested hereditary sovereign power in the Danish crown in perpetuity. This four-mark piece belongs to the first decade of his reign, a period when the new absolutist order was being physically impressed onto every institution, including the coinage.
The .671 fineness reflects a deliberate debasement from earlier Danish silver standards, part of broader fiscal adjustments following the ruinous wars with Sweden that had nearly erased Denmark as an independent state in the 1650s.