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40 Cents / 2 Francs - Frederik VIII
| Issuer | Royal Danish Mint (Den Kongelige Mønt) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1907 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | 25 mm |
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| Obverse description | Bare-headed effigy of King Frederik VIII facing left, rendered in high relief with finely detailed hair and a short beard. The engraver's initials GJ appear below the truncation. The circular legend reads FREDERIK·VIII·DANMARKS·KONGE, separated by two small floral ornaments at the top of the field. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Three allegorical female figures standing in the central field, representing the three islands of the Danish West Indies; the central figure faces forward while the two flanking figures face inward toward her. The surrounding legend reads 2 FRANCS·DANSK VESTINDIEN·40 CENTS, with the engraver's initials G.I. at lower left. In the exergue below a horizontal ground line, the date 1907 is flanked by a heart mintmark at left and the mint master's initial P at right. |
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| Additional information |
This dual-denomination piece was struck specifically for the Danish West Indies — the Caribbean colonies comprising Saint Croix, Saint Thomas, and Saint John — where commerce required compatibility with both the Danish krone system and the circulating U.S. dollar-based coinage of neighboring islands. The 40 cents equated precisely to two Danish francs under the colonial monetary arrangement established decades earlier.
Frederik VIII had been king for less than a year when this issue was struck. Denmark sold the islands to the United States in 1917 for $25 million in gold, making the entire Frederik VIII colonial coinage series extremely short-lived.