Danish Upgrade Continues

Danish Upgrade Continues

On May 4, 2010 a new 100-krone banknote was introduced in circulation. This is the second banknote in the renewed Bridges series after the 50-krone banknote, which was supplied to banks in last August. The issuance of the entire Danish modernized banknote series is planned for May 2011.

The face of the 100-krone banknote shows an image of one of the oldest bridges in Denmark. The bridge is 1178 meters long and has a clearance of 33 metres. The back of the banknote, just like each banknote of the series, is one of the most important archeological findings from the early stages of the country’s history. The orange and yellow 100-krone banknote shows the Hindsgavl dagger, which is a well-preserved Neolith flint dagger dated 1900—1700 BCE. The dagger discovered on the Hindsgavl peninsula in 1867 is depicted against the background showing the Danish northern nature. The 100-krone banknote and all other notes of the series have rather undemonstrative colors, which is characteristic for the European banknote mainstream and gives the experts a reason to compare the new Danish krone to the euro.

Karin Birgitte Lund, who designed the latest series of the national currency, found inspiration in interpreting the connection between the past and present. The five bridges and artifacts of the prehistoric Denmark found by archeologists near them, in the artist’s point of view, not only unite various regions of the country divided by the water, but also metaphorically connect the present with the past.

Just as the 200-krone banknote planned to be issued in October 2010,the new Danish 100-krone banknote has a relief feature that makes it significantly easier for the visually impaired to differentiate the banknotes.

The size of all banknotes of the 1997 series will be preserved completely. This is why the length of the banknotes in the Bridges series will be increased by 10 mm for each higher denomination starting with 125 mm (50 kroner). All banknotes of the renewed series (50, 100, 200, 500, and 1000 kroner) will have the same width of 72 mm.

The process of modernizing the Danish krone was approved and started by the national bank of the country in 2007, which is 10 years since the issuance of the current banknote series was finished. All banknotes of the Bridges series will have most stateof the-art security features, including a security thread with a “floating” image showing a wavy pattern, Motion™on the back, and the volume™ kinegram by Germany-based KURZ. The traditional security features, like the watermark and continuous security thread, will also remain on the banknotes. The soil-resistant paper supplied to the banknote factory of the National Bank of Denmark will already contain these traditional security features.