1 Daler Copper

Weighing up to several kilograms, a 1 Daler copper plate was essentially a portable ingot, designed to hold its face value through sheer bulk rather than precious metal content.

These plates were struck in Sweden from 1644 to 1654, using copper from the country's vast mines. Workers hammered the metal into rectangular forms, often with the monarch's image and denomination stamped on. That made them practical for large transactions, if you could manage the weight.

Exact production figures are murky; records from that era burned in later fires. Still, they circulated widely in Europe, reflecting Sweden's economic gambit during the Thirty Years' War.

One might say hauling a 1 Daler was the original heavy lifting in finance.