[74] July 13, 1523, a payment of about 17,000 marks having been already made, Gustavus wrote to Brask that Lubeck still demanded 200,000 guilders, which was equivalent to about 300,000 Swedish marks. This probably was an exaggeration for the purpose of getting a generous contribution from Brask. Another source states it as more than 120,000 Swedish marks. Svart, _Gust. I.'s krön._, p. 72. This clearly was too low an estimate; for we know that Gustavus paid at least 42,945 Lubeck marks (or 83,000 Swedish marks) in the course of 1523, and that in the following spring the amount claimed by Lubeck was about 240,000 Swedish marks. See _Kon. Gust. den Förstes registrat._, vol. i. pp. 109-110, and the documents in the Archives at Lubeck cited in Handelmann's _Die letzten Zeiten der hanseatischen Uebermacht im Norden_, pp. 165-170. The matter is ably discussed by Forssell in his _Sver. inre hist._, vol. i. pp. 134-138. Much confusion is caused by the fact that the debtor and creditor reckoned the sum each according to his own monetary standard, and there can be no question, too, that between the parties there was some dispute as to the exact sum due. [75] See a document in the Archives at Lubeck cited in Handelmann's _Die letzten Zeiten der hanseatischen Uebermacht im Norden_, p. 165. [76] [Illustration] Svart, _Gust. I.'s krön._, pp. 64-65. Svart, whose chronicle was written with a view to flatter Gustavus, informs us of the reduction in the value at which the coin was issued, and appears to attribute this reduction to the generosity of his master. It was "a good fat coin," he adds, which merchants carried out of the country as an excellent piece of merchandise. The zeal with which the chronicler defends the coin is enough to raise suspicion as to its true value. If it was really worth an öre and a half, it is incredible that Gustavus in the strait in which he then was should have ultimately given it for an öre. Forssell, in his _Anteckn. om mynt, vigt, mått och varupris i Sverige_, pp. 44-51, suggests that probably the coin was first issued for an öre and a half, and then with the same size and weight but containing more alloy, was issued for an öre. I think the true explanation is more simple. Gustavus had been found out. The "klippings" which he had issued a year before were such a palpable fraud that the Danish commandant of Stockholm had actually forbidden their use, lest the Danish "klippings" (which were about as bad as anything could be) might through association with the others fall into ill repute. _Christ. II.'s arkiv_, vol. i. pp. 214 and 218. So that when he issued a new coin and called it an öre and a half, people were suspicious and refused to take it till he reduced it to something like its value. This view is strengthened by the fact that of the few extant coins of Gustavus, dated 1522, not one contains enough silver to have been worth an öre and a half, and most of them fall considerably below the value of an öre.