Currency Today : Denmark 1

Not all countries in Europe are using EURO as their currency.
So isn't Deenmark, which is located in the north of Germany (only land border), between the North Sea and the East Sea. It's connected to Sweden by a brigde (see my article on Swedish currency).

Denmark itself is the smallest of the Scandinavian countries, but it forms the Kingdom of Denmark, together with Greenland and the Faroe Island, who are autonomous constituent countries.

The current set of banknotes (issued in 2009) are 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1000 kroner (crowns).

The first note is already something special : the 50 koner-note...

front side of 50 DKK (€ 6,75)

On the front side of the 50 kroner-note, we see a detail of the Sallingsund Bridge. With 1.717 meters, the  Sallingsund Bridge (Danish: Sallingsundbroen) connects the island of Mors with the peninsula of Salling, in the north western part of Denmark. It is the fifth longest bridge in Denmark.

Sallingsund Bridge

The hologram on the front, returns in de picture on the reverse side of the note.

hologram

Skarpsalling vessel (clay)

It represents the Skarpsalling Vessel (a clay vase or pot) found in east side of Denmark.
On the map, on the banknote, both bridge and vase are located.

map of Denmark (white parts) with location of bridge and vase

reverse side of the banknote 50 DKK

There is something more about the banknote, that you might not have remarked at first sight.

First thing in Danish language, is that they use some archaic constructions for numbers.

1,5 halvanden half-second
2,5 halvtredje half-third
3,5 halvfjerde half-fourth
4,5 halvfemte half-fifth

It's also known in Dutch language, when talking about time : half twee (half-two) is 1:30 or half past one; half drie (half-three) is 2:30 (half past two) and so on...

Secondly, Danish numbering is 20-based and not 10-based.
Compare to the French, Swiss, french speaking Belgians .... 80 is quatre-vingt (4 times 20).
Although also 'octante' or even 'huitante' is used in Switzerland...

Same for the Danish counting. But how about 50 ...  well since 50 is 2,5 times 20,
the counting goes : 2,5 (half-third) times 20 = 50.
In stead of  'femti' (5 x 10) is 50, it became "2,5 times twenty" or halvtreds(ind-s-tyve)

To be complete : the multiples of ten, above 50 - should be considered as multiples of 20, and the 'multiplier' is one half away from the higher integer...

The base 20 numeral system is also called the vigesimal system.

50 halv-tred-s(ind-s-tyve) half-third-t(imes-of-twenty)
60 tre-s(ind-s-tyve) three-t(imes-of-twenty)
70 halv-fjerd-s(ind-s-tyve) half-fourth-t(imes-of-twenty)
80 fir-s(ind-s-tyve) four-t(imes-of-twenty)
90 halv-fem-s(ind-s-tyve) half-fifth-t(imes-of-twenty)

more to follow...