The new Denmark 50 Krone banknote was featured in an article on the front page of the November 2009 issue of the Bank Note Reporter. I read the article, but you just have to see some of the new features to do them justice. The "windowed thread with a wave motif that moves when you tilt the note" is one of the coolest things I've ever seen on a note! (I'm charging batteries to take and post a video later) Issued: 11 August 2009 Serial Number: 548629C Front: Sallingsund Bridge at right, hologram of the Skarpsalling vessel at lower left Back: Skarpsalling vessel, windowed thread with wave motif at center that moves with the note is tilted UV: Fluorescent blue fibers, small yellow fluorescent circles behind the motifs on the front and back Watermark: Viking sailing ship found near Skuldelev in Roskilde Fjord along with the denomination Size: 125 x 72 mm The new 50 krone banknote is the first new banknote in the 2009 series. It was designed by artist Karin Birgitte Lund and has Danish bridges and prehistoric finds as a motif. The Sallingsund Bridge links the peninsula of Salling to the Liim Fiord island of Mors. The bridge, which was opened in 1978, is 1,717 metres long and has a maximum vertical clearance of 26 metres. For years before the bridge was opened, the route was served by two ferries named Pinen (The Pain) and Plagen (The Plague). In 1977, the ferries carried 1.3 million people and 658,000 vehicles across the sound. The clay vessel from Skarpsalling in Himmerland (Jutland), was found in a burial chamber in 1891. The vessel is one of the finest examples of pottery design and decoration known from Stone Age Denmark. It was created when the barrows were built in approximately 3200 BC, when pottery as a craft was at its peak. Clay vessels were used during the burial rituals – some pots with contents were stored in the barrows and others were put at the entrance to the chambers. See: New Danish Banknotes
What I also find interesting is that the new 50 DKK notes use the word "halvtreds" now. The older notes say "femti" which is more easily understandable from a non-Danish POV. But those "easier" words (femti, seksti, syvti, etc. - fifty, sixty, seventy, etc.) are hardly used in Danish. Halvtreds literally means something like "two twenties, and half of a third twenty" ... Christian
A simulation, so to say, of that effect can be viewed here: Go to "Virtual Tour" http://www.nationalbanken.dk/DNUK/NotesAndCoins.nsf/side/Virtual_tour!OpenDocument , then click on the 50 kroner note, then on "Back", then on "Window thread". Watch it move ... Christian
Thank you for the presentation of the note, but for my taste it just appears a bit too Euroesque - with the bridges etc. Up until this new issue, I have always enjoyed Danish notes for their uniquely Danish appearance, they did not copy or borrow a format from anyone else. My personal favourite series of Danish notes what, with the art and all, are the Jens Juels series that came out back in the 1970s and circulated through the 1990's.
