Banknotes of The Norwegian Krone - Historical Norwegian Banknotes

Historical Norwegian Banknotes

All Norwegian notes issued since 1877 are listed below in reverse chronological order. The notes have been issued in series starting with series I in 1877 and going on series VII from 1994. As of 2012 only series VII is in circulation, while series VI is convertible at the central bank until November 1, 2012.

The world wars created great need for cash. In 1917 a law was passed to allow for 1 krone and 2 kroner "coin notes" in response to a pledge from the Bank of Norway to the Ministry of Finance:

The board of directors at the Bank of Norway has in writing on the 8th September 1917 informed the Ministry that the shortage of change has now become outright intolerable. One company after another complain that they cannot arrange the agreed salaries for their workers, and the merchants cannot change their customers' banknotes.

Subsequently coin notes were printed until 1925 but were invalidated already in 1926 when the economy had stabilised after World War I.

Coin notes of 1 krone and 2 kroner were also printed during World War II (1940−45) and up until 1950. These were not invalidated after the war. However, the complete series II printed 1901−45 was rendered invalid on 9 September 1945 and those who could not readily justify their amount of cash were only given limited compensation in new money. This was done to diminish the impact of war profiteering.

5 kroner and 10 kroner notes were used from 1877 but were replaced by coins in 1963 and 1983, respectively, based on cost-benefit analyses.

Apart from the WWI coin notes in 1926 and the series II notes in 1945, all Norwegian banknotes from series I through series V, including 5 kroner and 10 kroner notes, plus the WWII coin notes, were technically valid – i.e. convertible at the Bank of Norway – all the way until 1998 (series I) and 1999 (series III, IV, V, and the WWII coin notes). The 1000 kroner and 500 kroner notes of series V were valid until 2001 and 2002 respectively.