The Vancouver Numismatic Society
Being rich in copper and poor in silver, Sweden’s royal government resorted to an unusual form of currency in 1644. Copper sheets were flattened by hammering, cut into rectangles and squares, and then impressed with the monarch’s monogram and a stamped value in dalers. The stampings were placed at each corner to prevent trimming of the copper sheet. As you can imagine, these copper plates were heavy. The one daler plate weighed 650 grams and the ten daler plate weighed 20 kilograms. Such money was too awkward for change or small purchases, so it was used for large, domestic transactions or for foreign trade. The Russian Empire faced a similar monetary problem: too much copper and too little silver and gold. So, it too produced plate money or weighty, copper coins. The Swedish found that paper credit notes were far more convenient and the production of copper plate money ended in 1776.
An impractical currency: Swedish Plate Money (1644-1777) by Peter N. Moogk