1897, 1906 and 1907 SMU 2-kronor commems

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Sweden and Denmark entered into the Scandinavian Monetary Union in 1873, with Norway joining the SMU in 1875 (Norway at the time being in a semi-autonomous union with Sweden, with Sweden in control of the kingdom’s external affairs).

Each of the three countries adopted decimal currency units pegged to an equivalent amount in gold—the Danish krone, the Swedish krona, and the Norwegian krone. Valued at par as they were, many of the SMU’s coins began circulating across the national boundaries of its member states.

Denmark struck the SMU’s first commemorative coin in 1888, a 2-kroner celebrating the Silver Jubilee of King Christian IX. The next SMU commemorative was again a Danish 2-kroner, in 1892, for the 50th (Golden) Wedding Anniversary of King Christian IX and Queen Louise.

Sweden-Norway was next, and as was true with the Danish coins, this third SMU commemorative was also a 2-unit piece struck in the same .800 fine silver, 15-gram weight as the regular issue SMU 2-unit coins.

Sweden’s first SMU commemorative—its first decimal commemorative—was this 1897 2-kronor struck in memory of the Silver Jubilee of “Oscar II, King of Sweden, Norway, Gothland and Vendalia.”

The Coronation of Oscar II had occurred in 1873, at Stockholm, and the King appears on this coin with the Crown, the Orb, and the Sceptre of Eric XIV, all made in 1561 for Swedish coronations.

The mintage of this Stockholm-struck coin, which is still legal tender in Sweden, was a sturdy 246,000. (Which means that nicely preserved examples like this one are still very moderately priced even these 11+ decades later.)

About the time this coin was struck, Gilson Willets wrote flatteringly of Oscar II in his 1899 book Rulers of the World at Home: “King Oscar II of Norway and Sweden is one of the most scholarly men of his time, an accomplished orator and an author of world-wide fame. He is a linguist who has English, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish at his command, besides the Swedish and Norwegian tongues.”

Willets reported that “[e]ven at the age of seventy years, the King carries himself with graceful erectness. His twenty-seven years of responsible duty have but sharpened his senses and revealed his more genial traits of character.” (Noted, apparently, two years after Oscar’s Silver Jubilee and the occasion for this 2-kronor commemorative.)

“The King is proud to know,” said Willets, “that he can walk abroad in perfect safety without an escort—a thing which no other European monarch dare do. In Winter time he skates alone; that is, without attendants to watch over him....”

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Oscar II was aware of the difficulties inherent in political unions—even where the partners were as well suited to one another as Sweden and Norway—and he worked hard to cultivate Norwegian good will. As part of that outreach, perhaps, by the time of Oscar’s Silver Jubilee it could be accurately said that the usual royal Christmas was spent in Norway at the palace in Christiania (as Oslo was then known).

The description of the annual event relayed to us by Willets (again, in the 1899 Rulers of the World at Home) is both a beautiful and quaint word-picture: “The traditional Christmas tree has been gradually establishing itself all over the country, and there is now hardly a family so poor that you would not find on the holy evening at least a tiny sapling, with one or two tapers and a few bits of gingerbread and colored tissue paper decorating its boughs...The royal tree is magnificent in proportions. Round the hall where it stands, tables for each member of the party are covered with costly and useful presents, bought at the different furnishers and silversmiths of the town....”

But buried at the end of a description of “Swedish Court Balls” (“...from 1,000 to 1,200 people are often invited, and this precludes the possibility of dancing with comfort.”) Willets lets slip a single fatal sentence—fatal, that is, where survival of the union of Sweden and Norway was concerned: “The Court is one of the few places at which the line drawn between Swedes and Norwegians is not noticeably marked.”

Only a few years later, this 1906 2-kronor became Norway’s second SMU commem:

As this piece records, Norway had gained its independence in 1905. The split between Sweden and Norway must have come as a shock to Oscar II—and after a lifetime spent trying to knit the two countries together—a wearying and soul-sapping disappointment as well....

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Because of poor health, Oscar II had temporarily withdrawn from his government duties during late January to the end of March, 1903. His son Gustav served as Regent during that brief period. (About the Crown Prince, Willets had written: “He cultivates a moustache and beard; the latter is now hiding an unfortunately ugly mouth and chin.”)

A few years later—and a decade after Sweden’s first SMU commemorative—came its second (and last), this time with no mention of Oscar II as King of Norway.

This 1907 2-kronor celebrates the 50th (Golden) Wedding Anniversary of King Oscar II and Queen Sophia. The mint at Stockholm coined 251,000 of these pieces, and again, given the large quantity and their circulating character, they are not too difficult to come by, even nicely preserved.

As noted by the coin’s inscription, Oscar and Sophia were married June 6, 1857, and the royal couple celebrated their 50th (Golden) Wedding Anniversary on June 6, 1907.

On December 8, 1907—just six months after his Golden Wedding Anniversary—King Oscar II died.

Oscar II had been the last Swedish monarch to be crowned. In 1907—the year of his death—Sweden’s coronation regalia (much of it visible on the 1897 commemorative) was transferred to the Bank of Sweden. In 1969 it went on permanent display at the Royal Palace in Stockholm.

The Scandinavian Monetary Union, of course, did not survive the first year of World War I.