5 Daler SM Contribution Authority

The Contributions-Werket was a short-lived fiscal body established during the later years of Karl XII's reign to extract emergency financing from a Swedish economy already bankrupted by decades of continuous warfare. This 5 Daler note is among the most primitive paper instruments ever issued under Swedish authority — the embossed seal serving as the sole authentication measure on what was essentially a state-compelled loan receipt rather than a conventional circulating note.

Karl XII died at Fredriksten in November 1718, and the institution did not long survive him. Notes of this type were issued into a population that had little choice but to accept them.