The bank itself was no great innovation, as it was a botched imitation of the large and successful banks in Amsterdam and Hamburg that had been founded earlier in the 17th century, but it was hoped that the bank would help to stabilise Sweden's currency. Sweden at that time did not have a single currency, rather there was one "daler" minted in copper ("kopparmynt") and another minted in silver ("silvermynt"). As the metal content of a copper "daler" had to be worth as much as that of a silver one, this meant that copper "daler" were large and heavy plate-sized coins. In practice, however, the silver "daler" was worth more and these were often hoarded, so generally only these large "kopparmynt" daler were commonly available.