Obituary: He did his best to keep up with the times. Now he is worthless.
DR-Inland in Denmark
Saturday, May 31, 2025 • 1:04 PM UTC - in Denmark
Tribute: Tusindkrone Makes Its Best Effort to Keep Up with the Times
The tusindkrone note, which has been in circulation for 50 years, has now reached the end of its life.
The thousand-crown note turned 50 years old. Here is a look back at its life in this money obituary, (Photos: © Claus Bonnerup/Ritzau Scanpix - Linda Kastrup/Nf-Nf/Ritzau Scanpix - Stine Munk Jensen/Ritzau Scanpix - Collage: Morten Fogde Christensen/DR Nyheder) 45 minutes ago
An old acquaintance is finally laid to rest.
After a long, slow death, since Nationalbanken took its first tentative steps and announced the news (https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/penge/nationalbanken-afskaffer-tusindkronesedlen) about the phasing out in the fall of 2023, the tusindkrone note finally finds peace.
It has been a part of Danish life since 1975 and entered the world on a Tuesday in its then reddish-brown color.
On the front with a portrait of Enlightenment author Thomasine Gyllembourg, on the back a red squirrel.
The tusindkrone was so charming, it was crowned the world's most beautiful banknote by an international panel of judges 20 years later.
The first thousand-crown note was part of the 1972 series, where the smaller banknotes also received an upgrade in appearance. (Archive photo). (Photo: © STINE MUNK JENSEN, Scanpix Danmark)
Despite attempts to adapt by changing clothes over time, it no longer works.
- There is no longer the same need for it, it was heard from Nationalbanken's director at a press conference back in 2023.
The note rarely comes out into the world and into the hands of merchants, but is too often placed in the drawer for savings in Danish homes.
And so, the tusindkrone's unsavory acquaintances in the criminal world and the use of it in money laundering cases have also been contributing factors in Nationalbanken giving it the first death blow.
Danish people now have plenty of time to get used to the loss. For two years, they have been able to deposit their notes and exchange them for cash or other banknotes.
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What can you get for a thousand kroner?
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When the tusindkrone is now laid to rest, it does so after a life with fluctuating value.
When it saw the light of day for half a century ago, the tusindkrone was much more valuable than it is today. But it also came into being in a time of crisis.
The note was necessary to send into circulation due to rising prices, which at the time were running wild. In 1974, inflation was 15 percent, which, according to Nationalbanken, was partly due to the international oil crisis.
Listen to how the money became scarce, in a clip from DR's archive from 1973:
Since then, price development has only continued. The value that the reddish-brown note had at the time is equivalent to 5,604 modern kroner.
With the note in your pocket, you could afford 34 kilos of coffee, 58 kilos of butter, or 24 kilos of pork, shows a calculation from Statistics Denmark.
Today, a thousand-kroner note barely reaches that far. This is largely due to the development of society over the past 50 years and the citizens' wages and wealth.
Comparing prices from the last year with those from 1975, you could have six times as much milk or 11 times as much fresh chicken fillets, as you can today.
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New Times, New Clothes
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It's not just the tusindkrone's value that has changed over time. Its packaging has also changed.
From its 70s look and characterized as 'the squirrel' came new clothes shortly after the beauty pageant victory. With the new millennium in sight, it received a fresh appearance, which came into circulation in 1998.
Listen to pensioner Gerda Johannessen talk about her relationship with the tusindkrone, after it received a new look in 1998:
After Denmark said no to jumping on the euro bandwagon in the mid-1990s, they decided to change all the banknotes, among other things, to combat amateur counterfeiters, who now had access to scanners and color printers in their scams.
To make it easier for banks and ATMs to handle them, both the half-crown, the dog, the plowman, and the tusindkrone were given the same height, but different lengths. And now, the Skagensmalere Anna and Michael Ancher were to be honored with a double portrait, while the squirrel was replaced with a drawing of a knight's tournament from Bislev Church on the back.
The newest version of the tusindkrone comes from 2011 and came with new advanced security elements against counterfeiters. Now it was also the end of portraits of important people, and instead, the tusindkrone was to show Danish architecture on its front in the form of the Storebæltsbroen, with the sun chariot behind.
* The first thousand-kroner note from 1975. (Photo: © STINE MUNK JENSEN, Scanpix Danmark)
* The first new version, which came in 1998. (Photo: © Danmarks Nationalbank, Scanpix Danmark)
* Thousand-kroner note from 2011. (Photo: © Claus Bonnerup/Ritzau Scanpix)
1 / 3 The first thousand-kroner note from 1975. (Photo: © STINE MUNK JENSEN, Scanpix Danmark) 1 / 3 The first new version, which came in 1998. (Photo: © Danmarks Nationalbank, Scanpix Danmark) 2 / 3 Thousand-kroner note from 2011. (Photo: © Claus Bonnerup/Ritzau Scanpix) 3 / 3
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Bad Company and Digital Superiority
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The tusindkrone's many disguises over time mean less today, where the majority of trade takes place with the more anonymous alternative, the credit card.
The tusindkrone's place in the world is therefore becoming smaller - it is used less than one out of ten times, every time someone pays with cash.
In today's Denmark, cash is now used only 9 percent of the total sales in physical stores, shows figures from Statistics Denmark. In 1991, it accounted for 60 percent of sales.
- The vast majority of tusindkrones are used for savings rather than daily transactions, said Nationalbanken's director, Christian Kettel Thomsen, when he euthanized the tusindkrone in 2023.
But the fact that the note is often exchanged between people in the criminal underworld was also decisive for the death blow. In higher degrees than the other banknotes, the tusindkrone has been used by the criminals, assessed the police last year.
- By phasing out the tusindkrone, large cash transactions will become more difficult to carry out for the criminals, as well as it will become more difficult for them to store and transport cash, it was heard from the police.
The criminals have had plenty of time to get rid of the notes they had to have lying around.
Have they - or all ordinary Danish people - have some left in their pockets or hidden in the mattress after today, it is now too late, and they no longer have value.
For the tusindkrone, the end has come, and its legacy is not much more valuable than a faded memory of a bygone era.
Sources: Nationalbanken, Statistics Denmark, Lex.dk and Ritzau.
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