The 1997 series of Danish Banknotes are part of the physical form of Denmark's currency, the

Danish Krone The krone (; plural: ''kroner''; sign: kr.; code: DKK) is the official currency of Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands, introduced on 1 January 1875. Both the ISO code "DKK" and currency sign "kr." are in common use; the former precedes ...

(kr.), issued by

Danmarks Nationalbank Danmarks Nationalbank (in Danish often simply ''Nationalbanken'') is the central bank of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is a non-eurozone member of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). Since its establishment in 1818, the objecti ...

. The 1997 series commenced in March 1997 and has since been replaced by the 2009 series. The series was introduced gradually between 1997 and 1999. Its issue began on 10 March 1997 with the debut of the 200 kr. denomination, issued to bridge the gap between the 100 kr. and 500 kr. denominations. Between 2002 and 2005 the security features of the notes were improved to include holograms and

fluorescent Fluorescence is one of two kinds of photoluminescence, the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. When exposed to ultraviolet radiation, many substances will glow (fluoresce) with color ...

elements. In 2006, the national bank began designing new banknotes to replace this series. It officially began to be phased out with the issuance of the new 50 kr. banknote on 11 August 2009. The 1997 series was printed on cotton paper with metallic threads. Each banknote features a portrait of famous Danish artist or scientist beside a rosette with the note's denomination. The reverse side of each note depicts an early stone relief from a Danish church. The banknotes within the series are all the same height (72mm), though each denomination has a different width in order to make the notes distinguishable to those with visual impairments.

The 50 kroner note

Danmarks Nationalbank issued the 50 kroner bank note (DKK50) on 7 May 1999 and updated it on 25 August 2005. It has been out of print since 11 August 2009. Danish writer

Karen Blixen Baroness Karen Christentze von Blixen-Finecke (born Dinesen; 17 April 1885 – 7 September 1962) was a Danish author who wrote in Danish and English. She is also known under her pen names Isak Dinesen, used in English-speaking countries; Ta ...

is featured on the front side of the bill and decorated with flowers, which Blixen was said to be fond. The design on the reverse is inspired by a stone

relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...

centaur A centaur ( ; ; ), occasionally hippocentaur, also called Ixionidae (), is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse that was said to live in the mountains of Thessaly. In one version o ...

from Landet Church on the island of

Tåsinge Tåsinge () is a Danish island immediately south of Funen, opposite and facing Svendborg, divided from Funen by Svendborgsund.See detailed Denmark roadmap in References section. The island covers an area of circa . It is part of the South Funen ...

. The 50 krone banknote has the word "femti", not "halvtreds" which is the usual Danish word for fifty. Femti is a word used for

cheque A cheque (or check in American English) is a document that orders a bank, building society, or credit union, to pay a specific amount of money from a person's account to the person in whose name the cheque has been issued. The person writing ...

s. The Danish National bank first used it on the 50 krone banknote issued in 1957, and the 1997 banknote is thus the third to use this word. However, on the new banknote issued on 11 August 2009 the word "halvtreds" is used instead of "femti".

The 100 kroner note

Danmarks Nationalbank issued the 100 kroner bank note (DKK100) on 22 November 1999 and updated it on 27 November 2002. It has been out of print since 4 May 2010. Danish composer

Carl Nielsen Carl August Nielsen (; 9 June 1865 – 3 October 1931) was a Danish composer, conductor, and violinist, widely recognized as his country's most prominent composer. Brought up by poor yet musically talented parents on the island of Funen, he d ...

is featured on the front side of the bill. The reverse of the 100-kroner banknote shows a

basilisk In European bestiary, bestiaries and legends, a basilisk ( or ) is a legendary reptile reputed to be a Serpent symbolism, serpent king, who causes death to those who look into its eyes. According to the ''Natural History (Pliny), Naturalis Histo ...

from Tømmerby Church in Vester Hanherred in northern Denmark. Around half of all Danish banknotes in circulation are 100-kroner banknotes, making it the principal banknote in the series. The 100-kroner bill is sometimes referred to as a ''hund'' (Danish for 'dog'), from a shortening of the word ''hundrede'' (a hundred).

The 200 kroner note

Danmarks Nationalbank issued the 200 kroner bank note (DKK200) on 10 March 1997 and updated it on 9 April 2003. It has been out of print since 19 October 2010. Danish actress

Johanne Luise Heiberg Johanne Luise Heiberg (; née Pätges; 22 November 1812 – 21 December 1890) was a Danish actress of the 19th century. She is most famous for her work at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, where she achieved great success. Though she was cl ...

is featured on the front side of the bill, while a lion from the

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

Viborg Cathedral Viborg Cathedral, Our Lady Cathedral () is the site of one of Denmark's most important historic churches located in the town of Viborg, Denmark, Viborg in northern Jutland. The modern building is a 19th-century construction based on Lund Cathedra ...

is featured on the reverse side.

The 500 kroner note

Danmarks Nationalbank issued the 500 kroner bank note (DKK500) on 12 September 1997 and updated it on 24 September 2003. It has been out of print since 15 February 2011. Danish

nuclear Nuclear may refer to: Physics Relating to the nucleus of the atom: *Nuclear engineering *Nuclear physics *Nuclear power *Nuclear reactor *Nuclear weapon *Nuclear medicine *Radiation therapy *Nuclear warfare Mathematics * Nuclear space *Nuclear ...

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr (, ; ; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and old quantum theory, quantum theory, for which he received the No ...

is featured on the front of the bill. The Danish Central Bank was heavily criticized by the Danish Cancer Society for choosing a portrait of Dr Bohr smoking a pipe, in an age of smoking bans. A

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

armour Armour (Commonwealth English) or armor (American English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences) is a covering used to protect an object, individual, or vehicle from physical injury or damage, e ...

fighting a

dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...

is featured on the reverse side which was derived from a stone

from Lihme Church in northern

Jutland Jutland (; , ''Jyske Halvø'' or ''Cimbriske Halvø''; , ''Kimbrische Halbinsel'' or ''Jütische Halbinsel'') is a peninsula of Northern Europe that forms the continental portion of Denmark and part of northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein). It ...

. The 500 kroner bill is sometimes referred to as a ''plovmand'' ( ploughman) because previous issues of the bill featured a picture of a man with a plough.

The 1000 kroner note

Danmarks Nationalbank issued the 1000 kroner bank note (DKK1000) on 18 September 1998 and updated on 25 November 2004. Danish artists

Anna Anna may refer to: People Surname and given name * Anna (name) Mononym * Anna the Prophetess, in the Gospel of Luke * Anna of East Anglia, King (died c.654) * Anna (wife of Artabasdos) (fl. 715–773) * Anna (daughter of Boris I) (9th–10th c ...

and

Michael Ancher Michael Peter Ancher (9 June 1849 – 19 September 1927) was a Danish Realism (art movement), realist artist, widely known for his paintings of fishermen, the Skagerak and the North Sea, and other scenes from the Danish fishing community in Skag ...

are featured on the front side of the bill. The portraits featured on the banknote were inspired by two paintings by Danish artist Peder Severin Krøyer made in 1884, and originally hung on the walls in the dining room at

Brøndums Hotel Brøndums Hotel, in the little harbor town of Skagen in the north of Denmark, is remembered for its close associations with the late 19th-century artists colony known as the Skagen Painters. It still operates as a hotel today. History The hotel ...

Skagen Skagen () is the northernmost town in Denmark, on the east coast of the Skagen Odde peninsula in the far north of Jutland, part of Frederikshavn Municipality in North Denmark Region, Nordjylland, north of Frederikshavn and northeast of Aalbo ...

. The

anchor An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ', which itself comes from the Greek (). Anch ...

background pattern on the banknote does not directly refer to the artists' surname (''anker'' means ''anchor'' in Danish), but to a necklace worn by Anna. The back of the banknote shows a tournament scene from a sepulchral monument in Bislev Church near

Nibe Nibe is a town with a population of 5,616 (1 January 2025), The 1000 kroner bill is sometimes referred to as a ''tudse'' (

toad Toad (also known as a hoptoad) is a common name for certain frogs, especially of the family Bufonidae, that are characterized by dry, leathery skin, short legs, and large bumps covering the parotoid glands. In popular culture (folk taxonomy ...

), from a

word play Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, ph ...

on the word ''tusinde'' (a

thousand 1000 or one thousand is the natural number following 999 and preceding 1001. In most English-speaking countries, it can be written with or without a comma or sometimes a period separating the thousands digit: 1,000. A group of one thousand ...

). It was the largest denomination of the 1997 series. The banknote is 165 mm x 72 mm.

Security features

The design of each banknote in the series incorporates various security devices. When the banknotes are tilted, various motifs appear in the

hologram Holography is a technique that allows a wavefront to be recorded and later reconstructed. It is best known as a method of generating three-dimensional images, and has a wide range of other uses, including data storage, microscopy, and interf ...

, including a hologram showing its value in both Roman and Arabic numbers.

Fluorescent Fluorescence is one of two kinds of photoluminescence, the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. When exposed to ultraviolet radiation, many substances will glow (fluoresce) with color ...

colours, which are visible under

ultraviolet Ultraviolet radiation, also known as simply UV, is electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths of 10–400 nanometers, shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation is present in sunlight and constitutes about 10% of ...

light, are also used on both sides of the banknotes. Some of these features were not part of the series' original run, but were integrated between 2002 and 2005. 50 kroner: The hologram alternately shows the figure 50, the

Roman numeral Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, ea ...

L and a flower. Fluorescent effects: Centaur on obverse and green print on the reverse. 100 kroner: Hologram: Two

musical note In music, notes are distinct and isolatable sounds that act as the most basic building blocks for nearly all of music. This musical analysis#Discretization, discretization facilitates performance, comprehension, and musical analysis, analysis. No ...

s, the Roman numeral "C." and the number "100." When the note is tilted the "C" grows larger and a rainbow appears. Using a

magnifying glass A magnifying glass is a convex lens—usually mounted in a frame with a handle—that is used to produce a magnified image of an object. A magnifying glass can also be used to focus light, such as to concentrate the Sun's radiation to create ...

, it is possible to see a microprinted "100" in the outer line around the letter "C." Fluorescent effects:

Basilisk In European bestiary, bestiaries and legends, a basilisk ( or ) is a legendary reptile reputed to be a Serpent symbolism, serpent king, who causes death to those who look into its eyes. According to the ''Natural History (Pliny), Naturalis Histo ...

on obverse and orange print on the reverse. 200 kroner: Hologram: A lion, the Roman numeral "CC," and the number "200." When the note is tilted the "CC" grows larger. Fluorescent effects: Lion on obverse and green print on the reverse. 500 kroner: Hologram: An

atom Atoms are the basic particles of the chemical elements. An atom consists of a atomic nucleus, nucleus of protons and generally neutrons, surrounded by an electromagnetically bound swarm of electrons. The chemical elements are distinguished fr ...

, the number 500, and the Roman numeral "D". The current version of the 500 kroner banknote was designed to be very hard to

counterfeit A counterfeit is a fake or unauthorized replica of a genuine product, such as money, documents, designer items, or other valuable goods. Counterfeiting generally involves creating an imitation of a genuine item that closely resembles the original ...

. The hologram cannot be colour copied. Fluorescent effects: Knight on obverse and orange print on the reverse. 1000 kroner: Hologram: A palette, the number 1000 and the Roman numeral "M". Fluorescent effects: Horseman on obverse and orange print on the reverse.

List of notes

References

{{DK currency and coinage Banknotes of Denmark Portraits on banknotes