A Swedish Gustavian silver parcel-gilt beaker with cover and copper coins, mark of F Petersson Ström, Stockholm 1789.

During the late 1730’s the interest in the diseased Swedish King Carolus XII politics and wars escalated. The coin used to decorate this bowl are of the kind minted to restore the situation after the s.c. ‘Not geld’ (emergency coins).
In Sweden, during the years 1715-1719, to finance the Great Northern War, Carolus XII and the Government decided to collect all silver coins and replace them with ones made in copper. 40 million copper coins were issued with different inscriptions such as ’Jupiter’, ’Vett och vapen’ (wit and weapons) and the last one ’Hopp’ (hope). The emergency coins issued were credit coins and the value of the coin corresponded with the amount stated on it, instead of the earlier system in which it corresponded to the value of the metal in the coin. The government promised to exchange them into the correct value in the future, but only a small value of this was ever paid, which lead to an uproar.