Kengis (; fi, Köngäs) is a small rural community in Pajala Municipality 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 border.

History

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

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