Norway announces theme for new banknote series
On 4 December 2012 Norway announced that the process of developing a new banknote series had officially started. The first step for the Norges Bank was to choose a theme for the new series. Once the theme had been approved, the national bank would choose the main elements of the banknotes' design.
That theme has now be chosen and it´s The Sea, reflecting its importance for Norway's business sector and economic prosperity. This is from the press release:
Norges Bank started work on the new banknote series in autumn 2012. This will be the eighth series. There is a need to enhance banknote security to ensure that current and future Norwegian banknotes are resistant to counterfeiting. The work is well underway and a number of important decisions concerning the new series were made by Norges Bank's Executive Board in the fourth quarter of 2013. The theme, denomination breakdown, material, colours, language and size of the notes have now been decided.
"Finding a theme for the new banknote series has been an extensive and exciting process, with a creative input of ideas from various contributors," says Trond Eklund, Director of Norges Bank's Cashier's Department.
Norges Bank has sought to find a theme that runs through the banknote denominations, binding them together into a banknote series. "The Sea" provides a virtually infinite array of visual possibilities. The theme will be reflected both on the obverse and reverse face of the notes, breaking with the tradition of portraiture.
"We have chosen a theme we consider to be original and particularly relevant for Norway, which is a small country but a major coastal nation. Norway has a total coastline of 83 000 km, the longest in Europe. The use of marine resources, combined with the use of the sea as a transport artery, has been crucial to the development of Norway's economy and society," says Eklund.
The current denomination breakdown of 50 – 100 – 200 – 500 – 1000 and the current main colours will be retained for the new series. All the notes, which will be printed on cotton paper, will be 70 mm in height, but the width will increase with each denomination by 7 mm. This means that the 50 krone note will be 126 mm wide, while the 1000 krone note will be 154 mm wide. The Bank's official name will continue to be written in Norway's two official written languages, Bokmål and Nynorsk, i.e. Norges Bank and Noregs Bank.
In order to attract as many creative and interesting design proposals as possible, Norges Bank is now in the process of launching a design competition. The competition will be run in two stages; first a pre-qualification competition and then the final competition between five to eight participants to select the winning design.
No word yet on a timeline or a proposed date of issue.
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