Kengis (; fi, Köngäs) is a small rural community in

Pajala Municipality Pajala Municipality (; fi, Pajalan kunta) is a municipality in Norrbotten County in northern Sweden, bordering Finland. Its seat is located in the locality of Pajala. In 1884 Tärendö was detached from Pajala Municipality, forming a municipalit ...

in northernmost

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, located very near the

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

border.

History

In 1644, two Swedish noblemen, later called ''Renstierna'' ("Reindeer star"), set up a forge in the Swedish village

Pajala Pajala () is a locality and the seat of Pajala Municipality in Norrbotten County, Sweden, with 1,958 inhabitants in 2010. It is located in Swedish Lapland. Pajala is in the Torne Valley and was dominated by people speaking a Finnish dialect u ...

(Finnish for "forge village") north of the

Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the most northerly of the five major circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth. Its southern equivalent is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circle marks the southernmost latitude at w ...

. As Sweden at that time was very eager to mint all the copper found in the country, they also got a concession for minting. Renstiernas minted both

plate money The svenska riksdaler () was the name of a Swedish coin first minted in 1604. Between 1777 and 1873, it was the currency of Sweden. The daler, like the dollar,''National Geographic''. June 2002. p. 1. ''Ask Us''. was named after the German Thale ...

and minor local coins in values of 5, 10, 15 and 20 ''

öre Öre () is the centesimal subdivision of the Swedish krona. In the Swedish language, the plural of ''öre'' is either ''öre'' or ''ören''. The name ''öre'' derives from the Latin word ''aereus/aurum'', meaning gold. The corresponding subdivisio ...

''.

References

Norrbotten Numismatics Populated places in Pajala Municipality {{Norrbotten-geo-stub