Danish krone

Danish krone
dansk krone  (Danish) donsk króna  (Faroese) Danskinut koruuni  (Kalaallisut)
1000 kroner banknote 1 krone coin
ISO 4217 code	DKK
Central bank	Danmarks Nationalbank
Website	www.nationalbanken.dk
User(s)	Denmark  Greenland  Faroe Islands1
Inflation	0.6% (Denmark only)
Source	, August 2013
ERM
Since	13 March 1979
€ =	kr 7.46038
Band	2.25%
Pegged with	Euro
Subunit
1/100	øre
Symbol	kr.
Plural	kroner
øre	øre (singular and plural)
Coins	50-øre, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 kroner
Banknotes	50, 100, 200, 500, 1000 kroner
Special banknotes are issued for use on the Faroe Islands – see Faroese króna

The krone (plural: kroner; sign: kr.; code: DKK) is the official currency of Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands, introduced on 1 January 1875.^[1] Both the ISO code "DKK" and currency sign "kr." are in common use; the former precedes the value, the latter usually follows it. The currency is sometimes referred to as the Danish crown in English, since krone literally means crown. Historically, krone coins had been minted in Denmark in the 17th century.

One krone is subdivided into 100 øre (singular and plural), the name deriving from the Latin aureus.^[2] All-together there are eleven denominations of the krone, with the smallest being the 50-øre coin, which is valued at one half of a krone. Formerly there were more øre coins, but these were discontinued due to inflation.

The krone is pegged to the euro via the ERM II, the European Union's exchange rate mechanism. Adoption of the euro is favoured by the major political parties, however a 2000 referendum on joining the Eurozone was defeated with 46.8% voting yes and 53.2% voting no.^[3]

History

A Danish silver two rigsdaler piece of 1868, with the portrait of Christian IX.

Two golden 20 kr coins from the Scandinavian Monetary Union, with identical weight and composition. The coin to the left is Swedish and the right one is Danish.

The oldest Danish coins are the so-called korsmønter or "cross coins" minted by Harald Bluetooth in the late 10th century.^[4] Organised minting in Denmark was introduced on a larger scale by Canute the Great in the 1020s. Lund was the principal minting place and one of Denmark's most important cities in the Middle Ages, but coins were also minted in Roskilde, Slagelse, Odense, Aalborg, Århus, Viborg, Ribe, Ørbæk and Hedeby. For almost 1,000 years, Danish kings – with a few exceptions – have issued coins with their name, monogram and/or portrait.^[1] Taxes were sometimes imposed via the coinage, e.g. by the compulsory substitution of coins handed in by new coins handed out with a lower silver content.^[1]

Danish coinage was generally based on a silver standard. Periodically, the metal value of the minted coins was reduced, and thus did not correspond to the face value of the coins. Chiefly, this was done to generate income for the monarch and/or the state. As a result of the debasement, the public started to lose trust in the respective coins. Danish currency was overhauled several times in attempts to restore public trust in the coins, and lanter in issued paper money.^[1]

In 1619 a new currency was introduced in Denmark, the crown/krone. One crown had the value of 1 1/2 Danish Rigsdaler Species accounting for 96 Kroneskillinger, later for 144 common Skillings.^[5]

Until the late 18th century, the krone was a denomination equal to 8 mark, a subunit of the Danish rigsdaler.^[6] A new krone was introduced as the currency of Denmark in January 1875. It replaced the rigsdaler at a rate of 2 kroner = 1 rigsdaler. This placed the krone on the gold standard at a rate of 2480 kroner = 1 kilogram fine gold. The latter part of the 18th century and much of the 19th century saw expanding economic activity and thus also a need for means of payment that were easier to handle than coins. Consequently, banknotes were increasingly used instead of coins.^[1]

The introduction of the new krone was a result of the Scandinavian Monetary Union, which came into effect in 1873 (with the coins being adopted two years later) and lasted until World War I. The parties to the union were the three Scandinavian countries, where the name was krone in Denmark and Norway and krona in Sweden, a word which in English literally means crown. The three currencies were on the gold standard, with the krone/krona defined as ¹⁄₂₄₈₀ of a kilogram of pure gold.

The Scandinavian Monetary Union came to end in 1914 when the gold standard was abandoned. Denmark, Sweden and Norway all decided to keep the names of their respective and now separate currencies.

Denmark returned to the gold standard in 1924 but left it permanently in 1931. Between 1940 and 1945, the krone was tied to the German Reichsmark. Following the end of the German occupation, a rate of 24 kroner to the British pound was introduced, reduced to 19.34 (4.8 kroner = 1 US dollar) in August the same year. Within the Bretton Woods System, Denmark devalued its currency with the pound in 1949 to a rate of 6.91 to the dollar. A further devaluation in 1967 resulted in rates of 7.5 kroner.

Current status

Relationship to the euro

Denmark has not introduced the euro, following a rejection by referendum in 2000, but the Danish krone is pegged closely to the euro in ERM II, the EU's exchange rate mechanism. Following the late-2000s recession, support began to fall, and in late 2011, support for the euro crashed because of the escalating European sovereign debt crisis.^[7] Denmark borders one eurozone member, Germany, and one EU member, Sweden, obliged to join the euro in the future (however Sweden maintains being part of ERM II is a required criterion and joining ERM II is voluntary, giving Sweden a de facto opt out).

Faroe Islands and Greenland

The Faroe Islands uses a localized, non-independent version of the Danish krone, known as the Faroese króna pegged with the Danish krone at par, using the Danish coin series, but have their own series of distinct banknotes, first being issued in the 1950s and later modernized in the 1970s and the 2000s.

Greenland adopted the Act on Banknotes in Greenland in 2006 with a view to introducing separate Greenlandic banknotes. The Act entered into force on 1 June 2007. In the autumn of 2010, a new Greenlandic government indicated that it did not wish to introduce separate Greenlandic bank­notes and Danmarks Nationalbank ceased the project to develop a Greenlandic series. Still, Greenland continues to use Danish kroner as sole official currency. Historically, Greenland under the colonial administration issued distinct banknotes between 1803 and 1968, together with coins between 1926 and 1964 (see Greenland rigsdaler and Greenland krone).

Coins

Alloys and colour scheme

A tin-bronze 50-øre coin

A cupronickel 1-krone coin

An aluminium bronze 10-kroner coin (2011- series)

The design of the coin series is intended to ensure that the coins are easy to distinguish from each other:

The series is therefore divided into three sequences, each with its own metal colour. This division into colours has its roots in history. In earlier times, the value of the coins was equivalent to the value of the metal from which they were minted: gold was used for the coins of the highest denominations, silver for the next-highest, and copper for the lowest coin denominations. This correlation between colour and value has been retained in the present coin series (see examples to the right). The 50-øre coins are thus minted from copper-coloured bronze, the 1-, 2- and 5-krone coins from a silver-coloured cupronickel alloy, and the 10- and 20-krone coins from golden aluminium bronze.

The coins differ in terms of size, weight and rim. Within each sequence the diameter and weight of the coins increase with their value. The 50-øre and 10-krone coins have smooth rims, while the rims of the 1- and 5-krone coins are milled. The rims of the 2- and 20-krone coins have interrupted milling. The 1-, 2- and 5-krone coins have a hole in the middle. Use of these various characteristics makes it easy for the blind and sight-impaired to tell the coins apart.

Commemoratives & thematic coins

The coins of the programme have the same size and metal composition as the regular coins of their denomination.

The first series, 20-krone coins featuring towers in Denmark, ran between 2002 and 2007 and spawned ten different motifs. Upon selecting the towers, importance had been attached not only to display aesthetic towers, but also towers with different form, functions and from different regions of Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. The last coin depicting the Copenhagen City Hall was issued in June 2007, marking the end of the series. A second series of 20-krone coins, starting in 2007 with twelve different planned motifs and ten already released by November 2011, shows Denmark as a maritime nation in the world, featuring iconic Danish, Faroese and Greenlandic ships and like the previous series of tower coins, the series reflect various landmarks in shipbuilding in the three countries.

In 2005, Danmarks Nationalbank issued the first in a series of five 10-krone commemorative coins with motifs from Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales. The motifs depicted on the coins were chosen to illustrate various aspects and themes central to the fairy tales with the fifth and final fairy tale coin inspired by The Nightingale being issued on 25 October 2007.^[8] In 2007, as the fairy tale series ended, a second series of three 10-krone commemorative coins was introduced, celebrating the International Polar Year. Featuring motifs of a polar bear, the Sirius Sledge Patrol and the Aurora Borealis, the coins aimed to accentuate scientific research in the backdrop of Greenlandic culture and geography. The third and final coin entitled 'Northern Lights' marked the completion of the series in 2009.^[9]

Banknotes

Bridge series

The process of designing the 'Bridge' banknotes was initiated in 2006 by the Danish National Bank.^[10] The theme of the new banknotes is Danish bridges and the surrounding landscapes, or details from these landscapes. The artist Karin Birgitte Lund has chosen to interpret this theme in two ways: bridges as links between various parts of Denmark and as links between the past and the present. The present is represented by the bridges, the past by five distinctive prehistoric objects found near the bridges. Among the new security features is a window thread ("Motion") with a moving wave pattern. Another feature is a new, sophisticated hologram that reflects light in different colors. The new banknotes also have the traditional security features such as the watermark and the hidden security thread.

Banknotes of Denmark, 2009 series
Image		Value	Dimensions	Main color		Description			Date of
Obverse	Reverse					Obverse	Reverse	Watermark	first printing	issue
		50 kroner	125 × 72 mm		Purple	Sallingsund Bridge	Skarpsalling vessel	Denomination and Skuldelev Viking Ship in Roskilde Fjord	2009	11 August 2009
		100 kroner	135 × 72 mm		Orange	Little Belt Bridge	Hindsgavl dagger		2010	4 May 2010
		200 kroner	145 × 72 mm		Green	Knippelsbro	Langstrup belt plate		2010	19 October 2010
		500 kroner	155 × 72 mm		Blue	Queen Alexandrine Bridge	Keldby bronze pail		2011	15 February 2011
		1000 kroner	165 × 72 mm		Red	Great Belt Bridge	Trundholm Sun Chariot		2011	24 May 2011
These images are to scale at 0.7 pixels per millimeter.

Nicknames

Within context, some of the banknotes have figurative meanings with the 100-krone note sometimes referred to as a hund (dog) shortening the word hundrede (a hundred). The 500-krone note can be referred to as a plovmand (ploughman) because previous circulations of the note featured a picture of a man with a plough and the 1000-krone note, too, can be referred to as a tudse (toad) taken from a wordplay on the word tusinde meaning a thousand. The 1000-krone note may also be referred to as an egern (squirrel) because of previous circulations of the note featuring a squirrel.

Exchange rates

See also

• Denmark and the euro
• Economy of Denmark
• Economy of the Faroe Islands
• Economy of Greenland

Footnotes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Coins of Denmark or Banknotes of Denmark

• Royal Mint of Denmark see Denmark's coin series.
• 2009 series banknotes

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