Towards the end of his reign, King Erik XIV became paranoid and suspected several people close to him of treason. In 1567 he had an inexplicable outbreak of rage and ordered what were called the Sture Murders, by which several noblemen were executed.
When the king realised what he had done, he paid a fine to Märta Eriksdotter, widow of one of the executed men. She got silver bars worth 1,000 silver daler. Such fines were called blood money. A fine of 1,000 silver daler was a very large amount at that time – but it was not enough.
The king’s brothers, Dukes Johan (John) and Karl (Charles), had had enough of the king and planned a coup. Märta Eriksdotter was a major political player and with the help of her silver the dukes could finance their own soldiers. They had the widow’s silver bars melted down and then they made their own square silver coins called klipping.
Because the silver came from the blood money, the coins were called blodsklippingar (blood klippings). King Erik XIV had reduced the amount of silver in his coins, which had caused inflation and price increases. The brothers made coins with a higher silver content to make themselves more popular among the people.In 1568 the brothers conquered Stockholm.
A year later, when Duke Johan became King Johan III (John III), he also began ordering the production of large numbers of poorer quality coins.
2301
blood klippings
Three square silver coins from 1568. The square format comes from the fact that a sheet of silver was stamped and then cut in pieces to create the coins.