Currency Today : Denmark 4

This is the 4th article about the Danish banknotes (series 2009).
To remain in the theme of the notes, again a bridge is depicted on the note.

The Queen Alexandrine bridge (Dronning Alexandrines Bro) is a road arch bridge that crosses Ulv Sund between the islands of Zealand and Møn.

500 DKK (€ 67,5)

Queen Alexandrine Bridge

Queen Alexandrine of Denmark

Queen Alexandrine Augusta of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1879-1952) was the spouse of King Christian X of Denmark. She was also Queen of Iceland from 1 December 1918 to 17 June 1944.

Queen Alexandrine understood how to navigate as part of the Danish constitutional monarchy through the turmoil of two world wars and the breakup of many European monarchies after World War I. She understood her emerging role as a “celebrity” and as part of the model for a royal family and that she remained bound by tradition. She used her charm and informality to reduce the gap between the royal house and the Danish population – making sure that the royal family stayed in their hearts in a time where society was changing.

In Danish history research, Queen Alexandrine is mostly seen as a quiet and amiable queen.

King Christian X of Denmark

Until now, Danish Kings and Queens (Margarete II) are loved by a large part of the population.









Interesting fact about King Christian X (Christian Carl Frederik Albert Alexander Vilhelm; 26 September 1870 – 20 April 1947), is that he was King of Denmark from 1912 to 1947 and the only king of Iceland (where the name was officially Kristján X), between 1918 and 1944.

Similar to the other banknotes, a holographic image on the front side, is repeated on the reverse side of the note.

holograpic image of the Keldby Vessel

The Keldby Vessel is not a Klingon space ship, but a bronze bucket, or more likely a wine container, from around 300 BC, it was found in the Keldby area and can be seen now in the Danish National Museum.

Keldby Vessel - on 500 DKK

Keldby vessel - real

As on the previous notes, a small map of the two locations (Queen Alexandrine Bridge and Keldby) are shown.

Map of central Denmark

Last post on the Danish banknotes so far, the 500 DKK-note.

There is also a 1000 DKK note in circulation, but not in my possession (yet).

maybe more to follow...

Currency Today : Denmark 3

Next on the list on danish banknotes, is a 200 DKK-note.

The front side shows us a bridge once more. The bridge in the image is the Knippel's Bridge
"Knippelsbro" is a bascule bridge across the Inner Harbour of Copenhagen, Denmark, connecting Børsgade on Zealand-side Slotsholmen to Torvegade on Christianshavn.

200 BKK (€ 27)

The history of the bridge dates back to 1620! After several wooden bridges, the current bridge (the sixth one), was originally known as Store Amager Bro (English: Great Amager Bridge) or Langebro (English: Long Bridge).

Knippelsbro by Janus Ridter

From around 1700 Christianshavns Bro (English: Christianshavn's Bridge) is seen. The current name stems from Hans Knip who became bridge caretaker in 1641, in charge of operating the bridge and collecting tolls from passing ships. His house became known as Knippenshus and during the 17th century the bridge became known as Knippensbro. And although this last name was never adapted officially, the bridge is known as the Knippel's bridge now.

Knippelsbro now

Further on the front side of the note, we see a holograpic image of a shield. As the image is not that clear, we have to look on the reverse side of the banknote, to see what it is about.

holograpic image of a shield - 200 DKK

It is an image of the Langstrup belt plate, a piece of decoration from the early Bronze Age (1400 BC).

Langstrup Belt Plate - 200 DKK

The Langstrup belt plate was found before 1880 together with a bronze knife and spiral
bangles. The decoration is composed by circular grooves and spirals, stamped probably by means of some standard punches into wax model before casting. Belt plates were worn by women on the front of their belts.

A detail of the decoration

The numbers are the turns of the spiral, counted at two different radial directions. The roman number gives the corresponding annulus. 

"It has, apart from the point, four zones with 15+22+26+32 = 95 spirals in all. Still, a numerical pattern does not seem to emerge. However, if one … multiplies by the number of the factor of the zones, the sum of the spirals turns out to be 15×1+22×2+26×3+32×4 = 265, or exactly the number of days in 9 months of the Moon-year (265½), or, incidentally, also the length of the average human period of pregnancy... 

Going one step further, and again multiplying with the zonal factors, but now incorporating the point of the Langstrup belt-plate as Factor 1 (but with the value of 0), a sum of 0×1+15×2+22×3+26×4+32×5 = 360 appears." 

Available: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325039515_Number_p_from_the_Decorations_of_Ancient_Artifacts.

reverse side of 200 DKK

Location of the Knippelsbro and the Langstrup belt-plate

More to follow ...

Currency Today : Denmark 2

For the second banknote in the 2009 series, we go to two places in Denmark:

detailed map of denmark - island Fænø in the middle

On the north of the map, a bridge between Snoghøj on the Jutland side to Middelfart on Funen.
The bridge depicted on the front side of the 100 DKK-note, is the "Old Little Belt Bridge" (Den gamle Lillebæltsbro). The bridge was opened in 1935.

(Old) Little Belt Bridge Denmark

100 DKK (about € 13,5)

We see in the left corner a kind of holographic image, which returns on the reverse side of the note.

detail 100 DKK

Hindgavl Dagger on 100 DKK

The image in detail is the Hindgavl Dagger, an artefact from 1900 - 1700 BC. It was found on the island Fænø; an island in the heart of Denmark.

It's an amazing artifact from Denmarks neolithic era. The blade of the dagger is hardly 1 cm thick.
It can be admired in the National Museum of Denmark, in Kopenhagen.

Hindgavl Dagger

Reverse side of 100 DKK

to be continued...

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...

Currency Today : Sweden 3

On this third post on the current Swedish banknotes, I am presenting the second highest denomination, the 500 crowns note (€ 50)

This set is dedicated to Swedish artist. On this 500 crowns note, we find Birgit Nilsson (1918-2005).

Birgit Nilsson (M.i.&a.) was a Swedish opera singer, who was born and died on the southern province of Skåne Iän, as depicted on the map on the reverse side of the note.

500 Swedish crowns (€ 50)

Skåne Iän

The M.i.&a. behind her name stands for the Medal 'ingenio et arti' (medal of science and art).In 1973, she was honoured by the Danish Queen Margrethe II - as a 'Thank you for the music'.

Medal "Ingenio et arti"

Since 2009, an opera award baring her name, is given to artists with meritorious achievements in the opera scene.

500 Swedish crowns - reverse

On the reverse side, we see a famous brigde, the Øresundsbroen (DK), Öresundsbron (SE) - or the Oresundbrigde (EN). This bridge connects the Swedish city of Malmö with the Danish city of Copenhagen. The bridge was built between 1995 and 1999.

If you ever visit Sweden or Denmark, this remarkable landmark, is a must to cross between the two countries, and 'mamma mia', what a view.

Oresund Bridge beween Sweden and Denmark

Currently I don't have the 1000 Swedish crowns - note in my collection, but if anyone would ask me who's willing to accept one, 'I do, I do, I do'.

Collecting : my collection 03d

In my previous post, you will not have seen a German or a French catalogue.
Also not a Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish ... catalogue.
This has a reason.
For those catalogues can't be seen as 'local' catalogues alone.

Remember I talked about 4 types of collectors:

1. countrywise
2. regionwise
3. worldwide
4. theme collection

In the previous post, I showed some individual, local, country catalogues.
Now I put some 'region' catalogues under your attention.

Regions can be of various types:
- the scandinavian countries - very popular amongst European collectors - (Denmark, Norway, Sweden)
     (extended with Iceland, Finland and even Greenland, Faroer Islands, Åland, ...)
- Balcan area (Albania, Bosnia i Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro)
     (extended if wanted with Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, and even Romania and Turkey)
- Islands of the Caribean
- The Middle East
- ...

For those collectors there isn't much choice.
As there is no catalogue that only deals with a certain region.
Except the FACIT catalogue, that combines all scandinavian countries.

Facit 1998-99

This splendit catalogue is an amazing treasure for collectors of this part of Europe.
Not easy to find second hand, but this copy is.

Besides a regional catalogue, it can also (of course) be used as a local catalogue for each individual country.

Some worldwide catalogues, have the same benefits as this Facit-catalogue,
but I will explain that in my next post(s).

to be continued...

To be or not to be : CTO - The difficult ones 04 c

Scandinavian countries are very much in demand, at least for european collectors. They are well known for having superb designs, high quality engraved stamps. And also a wel tempered issuing program.
And therefor it's unlikely to have CTO stamps from those countries.
Yet, they do exists, unfortunatly.

If you don't mind having artificially cancelled stamps in your collection, you might like the following examples.
For me, I rahter avoid them in my collection. But sometimes (like for souvenir sheets, blocks, ...) it's the only way to get them in your collection.

A small selection :

Sweden - CTO cancel with gum

Exhibition cancel - stockholmia 1.7.1955

Sweden souvenir sheets - perfect cancellation, but CTO

Sweden souvenir sheets - perfect cancellation, but CTO

Denmark blocks of 4 - CTO cancel

Denmpark booklet of 10 - CTO cancel