6 Skilling Dansk - Christian IV

Christian IV struck these small silver skillings during one of the most financially ruinous periods of his reign — the closing years of Denmark's direct involvement in the Thirty Years' War. His catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Lutter in 1626 had left Danish forces broken and Holstein occupied by Tilly's Catholic League army. The crown desperately needed liquidity, and the mints ran hard through 1627–1629 to keep military obligations funded.

The .781 fineness is notably below the standard Christian had maintained in earlier issues, a quiet debasement that most contemporaries would not have detected by handling alone.