This is my oldest Norway coin I found it at the Portland PNNA show a few years back for a nice price. Today, I took new pictures to document a few details. There are different obverse dies--this is the most common version. One of the other interesting details on this coin is the repunched date. The white arrows show an underlying "8" NW of the final date position. There is also retooling on other details--common during this period of die-making. But for me, the most interesting thing about this coin is the unique rampant lion style on the shield (b). This is a distinctly different style than usually seen on other coins of this series (a): the whole face is different, compare to below. In fact, this is the only coin with this reverse die/lion style I have seen after several years of searching. I begs to ask--who tooled this reverse--perhaps an apprentice die-maker? I brought this coin up with some dealers in Norway, but they seem to care only about the rarity/values of the obverse monogram styles. Which makes complete sense, if one hasn't seen any different reverse lion styles, and has not tried to determine a value. For now, I'm happy to own an otherwise "common" 2 Sk with a (possibly) rare die pair for this date.
The lion on your coin looks much more regal and fierce than the anemic looking one in the comparison example. I think if someone truly appreciates Norwegian coins, the stylized lion on your coin alone should be more desirable to them, actual rarity aside.
I agree it looks much better than the lion typically seen for this year--or 1688 for that matter. I do know the lion style the die maker was trying to replicate, but it doesn't work very well. So perhaps the maker of this die was trying to improve the lion by making the details bolder? And it certainly looks truer to the older style lion seen on the shield:
I recall there are three known obverse styles, one of which bears the date under the monogram. But I have looked at reverse dies with more interest; I have counted 4 individual dies so far, including this one I just found. The lion style looks in-between the other lions and the one on my coin. This reverse die appears to have serious rust damage near the bottom.
