History
The krone was introduced in 1875, replacing the Norwegian speciedaler at a rate of 4 kroner = 1 speciedaler. In doing so, Norway joined the Scandinavian Monetary Union, which had been established in 1873. The Union persisted until 1914 but, after its dissolution, Denmark, Norway and Sweden all decided to keep the names of their respective and now separate currencies.
Within the Scandinavian Monetary Union, the krone was on a gold standard of 2480 kroner = 1 kilogram of pure gold (1 krone = 403.226 milligrams gold). This gold standard was restored between 1916 and 1920 and again in 1928 but was suspended permanently in 1931, when a peg to the British pound of 19.9 kroner = 1 pound was established (the previous rate had been 18.16 kroner = 1 pound). In 1939, Norway pegged the krone temporarily to the U.S. dollar at a rate of 4.4 kroner = 1 dollar.
During the German occupation in World War II, the krone was pegged to the Reichsmark at a rate of 1 krone = 0.6 Reichsmark initially, later reduced to 0.57. After the war, a rate of 20 kroner = 1 pound (4.963 kroner = 1 U.S. dollar) was established. The rate to the pound was maintained in 1949 when the pound devalued relative to the U.S. dollar, leading to a rate of 7.142 kroner = 1 U.S. dollar. In December 1992 the Norges Bank (Central Bank of Norway) abandoned the fixed exchange rate in favor of a floating exchange rate (managed float) due to the heavy speculation against the Norwegian currency in the early 1990s which lost the Norwegian central bank around two billion kroner in defensive purchases of the NOK through usage of foreign currency reserves for a relatively short period of time.
Read more about this topic: Norwegian Krone
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Well, for us, in history where goodness is a rare pearl, he who was good almost takes precedence over he who was great.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“When the coherence of the parts of a stone, or even that composition of parts which renders it extended; when these familiar objects, I say, are so inexplicable, and contain circumstances so repugnant and contradictory; with what assurance can we decide concerning the origin of worlds, or trace their history from eternity to eternity?”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)