First year issue. It will probably be faced out within the next 10 years too. The image on the reverse is a fairytale animal taken from the portal of Urnes stave church. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urnes_stave_church#North_portal
The first image, which shows the country name, is almost upside down by the way. If you rotate the coin so that the "50" is at the top (in the twelve o'clock position), you can see a Nordic-Celtic fantasy animal from the stave church in Urnes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urnes_stave_church The name of the country is "Noreg" in the Nynorsk spelling (as here), and "Norge" in Bokmål (more commonly used in Norway). Two of the five coin denominations, including this 50 øre piece, use "Noreg". Christian
