Denmark 25 øre 1874 ♥ CS - Christian IX

The coin's story

This 25 øre coin in 600 thousandths silver belongs to the series struck from 1874 to 1905 in the name of Christian IX, King of Denmark from 1863 to 1906. It is part of the first Danish decimal coinage, born of the Scandinavian Monetary Union concluded with Sweden in 1873: the krone, divided into 100 øre, replaced the rigsdaler, at a rate of 2 kroner to 1 rigsdaler. In this gold-based system, the 10 and 25 øre coins were struck in silver. Christian IX was nicknamed the “father-in-law of Europe”, because of his children's marriages into the great royal houses of the continent. The portrait was engraved by Harald Conradsen, chief medallist of the Royal Mint in Copenhagen from 1873 to 1901, the initials CS are those of the mintmaster Diderik Christian Andreas Svendsen. The 1874 date, the first of the series, was struck in 8,139,000 pieces, and the coin ceased to be legal tender on 30 September 2008.