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Conference turris::scandia

Title:All about Scandinavia
Moderator:TLE::SAVAGE
Created:Wed Dec 11 1985
Last Modified:Tue Jun 03 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:603
Total number of notes:4325

141.0. "Nordic coins and bank notes" by TLE::SAVAGE () Mon Mar 15 1993 10:37

    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic                            
    From: [email protected] (Jukka Korpela)
    Sender: [email protected] (Usenet pseudouser id)
    Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
    Date: 12 Mar 93 09:26:39 GMT
 
    Swedish o"re comes from Latin aureus 'golden' which in turn is a
    derivation of aurum 'gold'. In ancient times, as well as in ours, there
    was inflation, and aureus coins gradually lost their value. Gold was
    first mixed with and then replaced by cheaper metals, although the word
    aureus was preserved.
 
    Similarly, for example, Italian lira comes from librum 'pound', i.e.
    from a word designating originally one pound of silver. And Polish
    zloty comes from a Slavic word denoting gold...
 
    The Finnish word for o"re is a"yri, which probably reflects an
    intermediate step in the development aureus > o"re. (By the way, in
    Finland the word veroa"yri 'tax o"re' is a taxation concept: if a
    community has a veroa"yri of e.g. 20, then people have to pay a
    community tax of 20 % for their income. Far from being almost nothing
    :-)
 
    The initial vowel in o"re sounds quite different from the diphthong in
    aureus, but the relationship is regular (e.g. Swedish ko"pa comes from
    Latin caupare).
 
    Yucca

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    From: [email protected] (Ahrvid Engholm)
    Sender: [email protected] (Usenet)
    Organization: Stacken Computer Club, Stockholm, Sweden
    Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1993 15:05:04 GMT
 
    Are you absolutely sure of this? As far as I remember the word o"re
    (oere) comes from the word o"rtuga (oertuga). Whatever oertuga is, it
    doesn't sound like "gold" - from a purely amateur linguistic point of
    view, I'd say "oertuga" sounds like "a little piece" (compare it with
    o"ra (oera, Engl ear) which is a little piece that sticks out of your
    head. In ancient times, when there was no change handy it was common to
    create change by simply splitting existing coins, so oertuga could be
    what you had left after you had split a more valuable coin a number of
    times.

    (But this is as I said just amateur speculation. You could be right,
    still.)
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    From: [email protected] (PC Jorgensen)
    Subject: Oere (was: Rule Scandinavia etc.)
    Sender: [email protected] (Mr News)
    Organization: UiO
    Date: Sat, 13 Mar 1993 16:49:19 GMT
 
    The etymology of "oere"
    ----------------------
 
    Riksmaalsordboken (1957) writes:
 
    oere [...] (gno _eyrir_, pl. _aurar_, fra lat. _aureus_)
 
    This means (for the non-Scandinavian speakers among us) that the word
    is thought to come from latin aureus, and was in Old Norse eyrir
    (plural aurar).
 
    This dictionary further explains that this originally was 1/8 Mark - in
    an old currency, and that this coin name was resurrected by the
    Scandinavian Currency Convention of 1873, which also said that 1 Krone
    = 100 oere.
 
    The Riksmaalsordboken is, by the way, a very prestigious Norwegian
    dictionary.
 
    Yours,
 
    PC Jorgensen
    grad.student (Russian linguistics)
    University of Oslo
    Norway
  
    home adress: 8326 Sogn S. by, N-0858  OSLO, NORGE - NORWAY
T.RTitleUserPersonal
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141.1Norway, denominations change over the yearsTLE::SAVAGETue Aug 17 1993 11:2355
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    From: Stein J�rgen Rypern <[email protected]>
    Subject: Nordic coins and bank notes (Was: "Hello" in norwegian)
    Sender: [email protected] (Stein J�rgen Rypern)
    Organization: Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
    Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1993 10:51:38 GMT
 
    I remember back in the old days (err, my childhood days in the late
    sixties/early seventies anyway :-). Then we had the 5 �re (.05 kroner),
    10 �re, 25 �re, 50 �re, 1 kroner and 5 kroner coins. 10 kroner was a
    bank note. 100 kroner used to be a lot  of money (at least for a small
    boy). Donald Duck used to cost something like 3.75 kroner. Nowadays it
    probably cost around 10 kroner. I must be getting old :-).
 
    On the other hand, the 10 �re goes out in a blaze of glory. 10 �re
    coins are being collected by school kids and returned to Norges Bank.
    The money is going to cancer research. There seem to be an amazing
    amount of the coins around, since almost everyone seems to have just
    tossed the 10 �re in a jar somewhere. They were worth too little to
    bother collecting and putting into the bank or paying with in the
    shops. So the kids are collecting tons (or at least a lot of kilos) of
    the coins.
 
    Nowadays the norwegian coins are:
     50 �re (0.50 kroner)
     1 krone
     5 kroner 
    10 kroner
 
    The bank notes are:
      50 kroner
     100 kroner
     500 kroner
    1000 kroner
 
    The coins have a profile of the king (Haakon VII pre-1957, Olav V
    57-91, Harald V 1992 onwards) on one side and a crown on the other
    side. The 100  kroner has a portrait of norwegian female writer Camilla
    Collett on on side.  Don't remember the others. Anyone else ?
 
    BTW: coins and bank notes in the nordic countries. What values 
    (denominations ?) are there, and who are on the coins and notes ? Or is
    that a question for rec.coins or whatever ?
 
 
    Smile, 
 
 
    /Stein
 
  ==========================================================================
  Stein Rypern, student      !     Hostes Per Aethera Erimus ! 
  Department of informatics  ! 
  University of Oslo, Norway !
  [email protected]         !
141.2People featured on Norwegian bank notesTLE::SAVAGEWed Aug 18 1993 11:0011
   From: tom@bim (Tom Kovar)
   Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
   Subject: Re: Nordic coins and bank notes (Was: "Hello" in norwegian)
   Date: 17 Aug 1993 18:23:57 GMT
   Organization: Alcatel Austria Research Centre
   
  50 nkr note: A.O. Vinje
 100 nkr note: Camilla Collett  
 500 nkr note: E. Grieg        [see note 35 - TT]
1000 nkr note: C.M. Falsen     [major contributor to 1814 constitution - TT]
 
141.3Norwegian currency changesTLE::SAVAGEWed Aug 18 1993 15:5677
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    From: [email protected] (Frode Milch Pedersen)
    Subject: Re: Nordic coins and bank notes (Was: "Hello" in norwegian)
    Sender: [email protected] (NetNews Administrator)
    Organization: NTH -- Norwegian Institute of Technology
    Date: Wed, 18 Aug 93 15:05:57 GMT
 
    From 1994 to 1997 we will have a new series of coins, with the
    denominations 50 ore, 1 krone, 5 kroner, 10 kroner, and 20 kroner. The
    new coins will generally be lighter and smaller than the present coins.
    (The need for this has been realized ever since 5 kr coins - popularly
    called "manhole covers" were introduced in 1963.) All designs will be
    changed, but all new coins will be kept in accordance with the
    traditional Norwegian coin designs, with  basically the same symbols we
    see on the coins today. (King's portrait, royal crown etc.) I doubt we
    will see bees and horses on our coins again, like the old pre-1973
    coins. The 50 ore coin will be brown (like 5 ore used to be), 1 and 5
    kr the same silver color as now, and 10 and 20 kr will be golden
    (brass).
 
    The new set of coins will be similar to the new set of coins already
    introduced in Sweden and Denmark. (Is there a 20 kr coin in Sweden
    yet?) The new Danish 10 and 20 kr coins are some of the most beautiful
    coins I have seen, and I hope the new Norwegian coins will be of
    similar quality.
 
    Actually, they didn't bother making a new 10 kr coin for 1992, so they
    still used late King Olav's portrait. The 1992 set of coins was the
    only one in Norwegian history with two different king portraits on the
    coins.
 
 
    OddMagne Sekkingstad writes:

    > Isn't Nansen and Bj�rnson on some bank notes(1000 and 500?)
 
    They used to be, but (unfortunately, I'd say), not anymore. Nansen died
    out with the blue 10 kr note in 1983, and Bjoernson was replaced by
    Vinje on the 50 kroner notes sometime during the 1980's.

    As correctly pointed out by Tom Kovar, the other banknotes feature
    Collett, Grieg, and Falsen. Interestingly enough, Camilla Collett
    replaced her big brother, the writer and poet Henrik Wergeland, on the
    100 kroner note (in the late 70's).
 
    Norwegian culture really suffered a loss when Niels Henrik Abel was
    replaced by Grieg on the 500 kr notes a couple of years ago. Abel was
    the most notable Norwegian mathematician ever, even though he died of
    consumption only 27 years old. It has been said that during his short
    life, he gave mathematicians enough problems to think about for
    hundreds of years! His portrait on the banknotes was probably the only
    example ever of Norway honoring an abstract thinker.

    Interestingly enough though, when the new 500 kr notes came, they were
    suddenly a lot more popular than the old Abel ones. I don't understand
    why, but you always had to ask for them specifically at the bank, or
    they would give you 10x100 kr notes rather than 1x500 and 5X100.
 
    The biggest loss though, was when good old Henrik Ibsen was replaced by
    Falsen (I must admit I didn't know who Falsen was before the new
    banknote came). Not only was Ibsen an outstanding writer, but his
    portrait on the 1000 kr notes really gave you respect for the piece of
    paper you were holding in your hands! You could really feel that this
    was the highest banknote denomination! Also, the reverse side of it,
    with the picture of the Vardoe lighthouse, was beautiful as well as
    dramatic.
 
    The new banknotes look like they have been made by some kind of
    machine. The portraits and pictures on the reverse sides of them are
    well made though. The paper is also of better quality than that of the
    old notes.
 
    Does anyone know what all the obscure objects on the reverse side of
    the banknotes are? The 100 kroner notes have some kind of brooch, I
    don't remember right now what's on the other ones...
 
    -- Frode M. Pedersen
141.4Biographies of persons on Norwegian bank notesTLE::SAVAGEThu Aug 19 1993 13:50151
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    From: "Stein J�rgen Rypern" <[email protected]>
    Subject: Re: Nordic coins and bank notes (Was: "Hello" in norwegian)
    Sender: [email protected] (Stein J�rgen Rypern)
    Organization: Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
    Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1993 12:34:41 GMT
 
 
    After starting to talk about norwegian coins and bank notes, I sort of
    got curious (occupational hazard for a graduate student :-), so I
    looked up the bios of the persons on the norwegian bank notes and
    compiled a quick rehash yesterday night.
 
    Attached to this post are the notes I made. Probably a lot more than 
    you ever wanted to know about Vinje, Collett, Falsen and Ibsen, and
    probably grossly oversimplified etc. In particular, I guess there
    probably are a lot of people who know more about Ibsen that I found out
    from an encylopedia :-)
 
 
VINJE, AASMUND OLAVSSON (50 KRONER NOTE)
========================================

    Poet, proponent of the nynorsk written standard. Born Vinje, Telemark
    1818, died Gran, Hadeland 1870. Grew up in a poor family. Started
    working at 18 as a traveling teacher in the coutryside. Later attended
    the Asker Seminary for teachers, where he graduated in 1843. Worked as
    a teacher 43-48. Then juridical education. Qualified as a lawyer
    (Overrettssakfoerer) 1856.
 
    Worked as a newspaperman for the newspapers Morgenbladet and Drammens
    Tidende. Then started his own newspaper, D�len, in 1856. He published
    the paper until his death in 1870, and wrote most of the contents
    himself. The paper was the first newspaper written in nynorsk. Together
    with Ivar Aasen and Arne Garborg one of the most important proponents
    of the nynorsk written standard for norwegian.
 
    Received travel scholarships (presumably from the government ?), and
    travelled extensively in the years 1860-63, both in Europe and around
    Norway. Worked as a legal clerk in the justice departement 1865-68, but
    was fired after critizing the government severely (What about?). Lived
    off the income from his writing the last two years of his life.
 
    Most of his articles, speeches and poems were published in his
    newspaper, D�len, like the wellknown poems "Blaamann", "Du gamle mor",
    "Vaaren" og the classic "ved Rondane" (No ser eg atter slike fjell og
    dalar ..). He also published several books, the best known probably his
    travelogue (sp?) "Ferdaminni" (1861), which was a description of life
    in the mountain valleys of Norway.
 
 
COLLETT, CAMILLA (100 KRONER NOTE)
==================================

    Author and a champion of womens rights. Born Kristiansand, Vest-Agder,
    1813, died Kristiania (Oslo) 1895. Daughter of politician and priest
    Nicolai Wergeland, and sister of the great author Henrik Wergeland.
    Grew up at the vicarage at Eidsvoll, where the father was priest.
 
    At age 17 she fell hopelessly in love with the poet Johan Sebastian
    Welhaven, but it was a rather one-sided affair. She later (in 1841)
    married the politician and lawyer Jonas Collett, who supported her
    ideas about womens rights. He died after only 10 years of marriage. The
    pensions she recieved for her late husband was so small, that she had
    to dissolve her home and let relatives take hand of her children.
 
    Camilla Collett wrote a diary during her youth, and she later edited
    and compiled her diaries and letters from this period for publication
    after her death. Published in four volumes in the years 1926-33, these
    books give us an intense and dramatic view into the culture life of the
    19th century.
 
    She first published a few folktales and stories, partly in
    collaboration with the wellknown collector of folktales, Asbj�rnsen.
    Her major work as an author is considered to the novel "Amtmandens
    d�tre" which were published in two volumes in 1854-55. It was one of
    the first realistic novels in norwegian, and she strongly expressed the
    view that women should be allowed to make their own choices in
    particular in the selection of a husband.
 
    The novel sharply criticized the attitudes and conventions of the upper
    class, but does not question the existence of an upper class. It sort
    of sets up an ideal for how this upper class should behave.
    Nevertheless this book was considered to be a major step in the
    emacipation of women.
 
    As an connoisseur of the language, she probably reached the top in her
    memoirs "I de lange n�tter" (1862) where she described her childhood
    home at Eidvoll and her father and brother.
 
    Her late authorship were mostly about womens rights. She wrote a large
    number of articles and essays, and developed as a very able debater and
    proponent of womens liberation. She came to understand that this also a
    social and political problem, even though she always stressed that the
    personal independence of women were the most important issue.
 
 
FALSEN, CHRISTIAN MAGNUS (500 KRONER NOTE)
==========================================

    Lawyer and the principal author of most of the draft constitution later
    adopted at Eidsvoll 17 mai 1814. Born 1782, died 1830. Was chairman of
    the constitution comittee at Eidsvoll, and for a period also chairman
    of the whole assembly. Often considered to be the "father of the
    constitution".
 
    Later governor (stiftsamtmann) in Bergen 1825. Chief of the supreme
    court (h�esterett) 1827.
 
 
IBSEN, HENRIK (1000 KRONER NOTE)
================================

    Major norwegian author and playwright. Born Skien, Telemark 1828, died
    Kristiania (Oslo) 1906. Son of a well-to-do merchant in Skien, who
    later went bankrupt when Henrik was 8 years old. Apprentice in a
    pharmacy in Grimstad, then one year at the Heltberg 'student factory'
    in Kristiania in 1850-51.
 
    Started working as a producer in "Det Norske Theather" in Bergen
    1851-57. Then worked in theathers in Oslo 1857-64. Went abroad, and
    stayed abroad (Italy, Dresden, Munich) for 27 years before settling in
    Kristiania in his old age.
 
    He wrote a large number of plays, too many to mention all of them here,
    and certainly too many to rehash the reviews I skimmed through in the
    encyclopedia I used for this post.
 
    His early works contains several historic plays: "Fru Inger til
    �str�t", "Gildet p� Solhaug", "H�rmendene p� Helgeland". Then a play
    critcizing the society: "Kj�rlighetens komedie" which were poorly
    received. In reaction to this response he wrote the play "kongsemnene".
 
    The came the great plays, his breakthrough as a playwright: "Brand" and
    "Peer Gynt".
 
    With the play "Samfunnets st�tter" (The pilars of the community ?) he
    started a group of plays discussing the community and public affairs.
    Another wellknown play in this group is "Et Dukkehjem" (A dolls house).
 
    He then progressed to write some deep, soul-searching plays, among them
    "Vildanden", before fading out with some rather bitter plays in his
    last years
 
 
 
==========================================================================
Stein Rypern, student      !            SOL-3 (TERRA) 
Department of informatics  !    HOME OF THE DUCK-BILLED PLATYPUS
University of Oslo, Norway ! (and a species descended from rodents, 
[email protected]         !  but I forget the name - Homo something ?) 
141.510-�re Norwegian coin went out of circulation spring 93TLE::SAVAGETue Sep 07 1993 15:3324
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    From: [email protected] (Leif Magnar Kj�nn�y)
    Subject: Re: Inflation (Re: "Hello" in Norwegian)
    Sender: [email protected] (NetNews Administrator)
    Organization: Norwegian Institute of Technology
    Date: Sun, 5 Sep 93 11:35:30 GMT
 
 > >Is the 10-�re coin gone??
 
    Yup.  It's gone.  Went out of use earlier this year (March or April)?
                                                              
    The 10-oere coin had for some time, I believe, cost about as much to
    produce as it was "worth", or possibly even more.  Besides, there was
    hardly anything left you could buy with them anymore -- I think I can
    remember about ten years back to when there were still 10-oere sweets,
    but those are long gone -- and they were nothing but a damn nuisance
    anyway.  Nowadays, prices are just rounded to the nearest .50 kr (up
    *or* down, so things come out about even in the long run).
 
-- 
    Leif Kj{\o}nn{\o}y (in LaTex-ese, that is).  [email protected]
  GS d- -p+ c++ l m* s++/++ g+/- w+ t- r++ (x+) (GeekCode version 0.3)
Save the Whales -- from Greenpeace.  Trust noone, keep your harpoon handy.
			Cerebus for Dictator!
141.6Sweden's first coins minted in 995 A.D.TLE::SAVAGETue May 16 1995 13:5115
    To: International Swedish Interest discussion list
    From: Anders Berg <[email protected]>
    
    This year, one thousand years ago the first Swedish coins were coined
    It was king Olof Sk�tkonung who started this coinage in Sigtuna. There
    is an exhibition now in Sigtuna Museum displaying Swedish coins from
    all centuries. Very interesting, I've been there. It runs until Oct
    1st.
    
    Sigtuna is today Sweden's oldest city. During the excavations a couple
    of years ago the actual spot where the coins were stamped was found!
    
    /Anders Berg
    
    [email protected]
141.7Heart symbol signifies Copenhagen mintTLE::SAVAGEMon Aug 07 1995 17:2324
    From: [email protected] (Peter Bjoern)
    Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
    Subject: Re: Strange Currency
    Date: Sat, 05 Aug 1995 13:24:58 GMT
    Organization: None
 
    rosentha@indigo (Colin Rosenthal) wrote:
 
    >Why do Danish 25 and 50 oere coins have "LG loves JP" on them and
    >who are LG and JP?
 
    Now, they don't actually have "LG loves JP" on them, but rather LG and
    JP placed on both sides of a heart symbol. I do not know the actual
    names, but I believe LG and JP are the initials of the artist who
    designed the coins and possible the engraver who did the engraving on
    the tools used to press the coins.

    The heart symbol can also be found on the 1, 2 and 5 kroner coins
    without the LG and JP initials adjacent.

    I know that on Danish postage stamps you can also find the initials of
    the engraver.
 
    Regards, Peter