4 Öre - Charles XII

Charles XII struck these coins during the most desperate phase of his reign, when Sweden's treasury had been gutted by two decades of near-continuous warfare. The billon composition — silver diluted well below half — was a direct consequence of that fiscal collapse. The king was in the field commanding campaigns he could no longer afford, and the mint was essentially debasing on his behalf to keep the state solvent.

Charles died at the siege of Fredriksten in November 1718, and coinage reform followed quickly under his successors. KM#257 pieces that show heavy circulation are actually scarcer than cabinet survivors; the economic chaos of those years pulled low-denomination billon out of hoards and into daily use.