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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;svessien, post: 5381881, member: 15481&quot;]A side note here, [USER=114866]@ColonialCoinsUK[/USER] :</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1230581[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces47938.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces47938.html" rel="nofollow">https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces47938.html</a></p><p><br /></p><p>I don’t know if you are familiar with this issue. These coins were minted with silver that was collected all over Denmark/Norway, to finance a new fleet after the bombing of Copenhagen in 1807. The Danes picked the «wrong» side in the Napoleonic wars, and suffered greatly for it. The British run a sea blockade across the Skagerak, which led to «barkebrødstid» in Norway. «Barkebrød» was bread where a large portion of bark from trees was blended into the dough, because there wasn’t enough flour, and people were starving. The playwright Henrik Ibsen wrote one of his most famous poems, «Terje Vigen» about this. Terje Vigen tried to row across Skagerak in order to get flour and grain to feed his family. He was caught and arrested by the British, and upon returning home after the war, his whole family was dead. (In my time at school we had to learn the first and last verses by heart.)</p><p>So this was a very difficult time for the Danish and Norwegian people. It basically ended with Denmark going bankrupt, and Norway being handed over to Sweden. During this transition, the Norwegians were able to establish a constitution which the Swedish king accepted. This constitution was later used as leverage to establish independency in 1905.</p><p>That’s only one of many important consequences of events around Napoleon. You collect coins from an important time in European history, that’s for sure. But I guess you know that. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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