In western Asia Minor, coins with a reliable indication of weight and precious metal content were first minted in the 7th century BC. It meant that you could simply count the coins when engaging in trade instead of having to check them carefully. And it laid the foundations for the monetary economy we know today.
Clear reference to royal power
The first official Danish coin dates from the year 995, and is called the Svend Tveskæg (Sweyn Forkbeard) coin. Svend Tveskæg was the first ruler to have his name on a Danish coin. No more than 20,000 of the coins were minted. The Svend Tveskæg coin is deemed to be the first official Danish coin because it was the first Danish coin to bear the name of the king and the country. However, archaeological finds have shown that there were coins in Denmark long before Svend Tveskæg.
Ever since Danish coins were first minted, a clear reference to the monarchy has traditionally been included on the coins. This might take the form of a portrait of the King or Queen or the royal monogram. In the old days, the King was responsible for issuing coins. By making him a prominent figure on the coin, he was made the guarantor that the coin contained the right amount of metal and thus had the right value.
Danmarks Nationalbank issues Denmark’s coins
For the past 1,000 years, the monarch – and later the state – has had the exclusive right to issue coins in Denmark. The Constitution states: “The King is entitled to have money minted as provided by statute”. According to the Danish Coinage Act, the government is still responsible for minting coinage.
In 1975, the Royal Danish Mint was transferred from the government to Danmarks Nationalbank. Since then, production and administrative tasks related to the minting of coins have been delegated to Danmarks Nationalbank. Danmarks Nationalbank produced coins ‘in-house’ from 1975 to 2016, after which production was outsourced. However, Danmarks Nationalbank still issues the coins.
Historical coin series
Therefore, in 1813, the entire monetary system was reorganised with a monetary reform which saw the establishment of the Rigsbank, which was given the exclusive right to issue banknotes. The King still issued coins.
Instead of kroner, the currency back then was rigsbankdaler. The rigsbankdaler was made up of rigsbankskilling, rigsbankdaler and speciedaler. Under Frederik VI, special gold coins were minted called Frederik d’or, which translated directly from the French means ‘Frederik of gold’. The coins were not part of the Danish coinage system, but were used for international payments. Similar coins were also produced under other kings, for example a Christian d’or.
When the Rigsbank became Danmarks Nationalbank in 1818, the currency unit was still rigsbankdaler. In 1820, the design of the daler coins was changed – they actually depicted the Norwegian lion in the coat of arms, and Norway had not belonged to Denmark since 1814.
The intention was that it should be used to make it easier to convert the Danish rigsbank standard of coinage into the standard which had been used prior to the monetary reform of 1813, and which was still in use in the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein.
The coin denominations in the series were the same as since 1813. However, the lower denomination coins became smaller, and they were now made of bronze instead of copper.
With the Danish Coinage Act of 1873, Denmark switched to basing its monetary system on the gold standard, and rigsdaler were replaced by kroner as the Danish currency unit. One rigsdaler could be exchanged for two kroner.
From the mid-1870s, a Danish, a Swedish and a Norwegian krone had the same gold value, and the individual countries’ coins could therefore be used freely in all three countries. The Scandinavian Monetary Union was effectively dissolved during World War 1, because the exchange rate differences between the three countries became too large.
During Frederik VIII’s short time on the throne, no new 1 and 2-krone coins were struck because there were enough coins from Christian IX’s reign in circulation.
In August 1914, Danmarks Nationalbank issued a 1-krone banknote, which was redesigned in 1916. It was the first and only 1-krone banknote issued in Denmark.
In the 1920s, a new series of coins was produced, and they were intended to clearly differ from previous coins. This was the first time that a ½-krone coin and coins with holes in were seen. Denmark is one of only a few countries that has holed coins. Holes were used for the first time in 1924 in order to help distinguish between the coins. Later, the hole disappeared, but was reintroduced for the 25-øre coin in 1966. The hole is still found in the 1, 2 and 5-krone coins in the 1989 coin series that we use today.
Both World War I and II resulted in metal shortages. Therefore, many coins were made of so-called crisis metals such as iron, aluminium and zinc. During World War II, the ½-krone coin was withdrawn from circulation to reuse the metal to make other coins.
The plan was that the small coins made of the crisis metal zinc were to be made of bronze, but bronze prices increased, and it therefore became too expensive to produce them. Only the 5-øre coins made of bronze entered circulation, even though many 1 and 2-øre bronze coins were struck. The 1 and 2-øre coins therefore continued to be made of zinc until they ceased to be legal tender in 1973.
In 1979, price developments resulted in the 10-krone banknote being replaced by a 10-krone coin. A coin lasts far longer in daily use than a banknote, and is therefore cheaper to produce in the long run.
In the new coin series from 1989, the 25-øre coin was the lowest denomination, and a 20-krone coin was added.
The sizes and colours of the other coins changed, reflecting their place in the series: The low denomination coins were made of tin bronze (copper-coloured), the medium denomination coins were made of cupronickel (silver-coloured), and the highest denominations were made of aluminium bronze (gold-coloured).