crown

Open full sized image

Swedish 100-kronor banknotes.

Emil Frisk

crown, monetary unit of several European countries, including Sweden, Denmark, and Norway—the first countries to adopt the crown, in the 1870s. The Swedish crown (krona) is divided into 100 öre, though coins valued at less than 100 öre are no longer in circulation. In Norway the unit is known as the krone, and in the Czech Republic it is called the koruna.

In Sweden, the most populous of these countries, the Svergies Riksbank (also known as Riksbanken, the Swedish National Bank, or the Bank of Sweden) has the sole authority to issue banknotes and coins, a power it has had since 1904. Coins are issued in denominations ranging from 1 to 10 kronor and contain images and symbols of the Swedish monarchy. Banknotes are issued in denominations from 20 to 1,000 kronor. The obverse sides of the bills have pictures of Swedish cultural and historical figures. For example, the famed 19th-century soprano Jenny Lind is on the 50-krona note, and the 18th-century naturalist Carl von Linné (Carolus Linnaeus) is on the 100-krona bill. The reverse sides are adorned with images of the Swedish landscape, of literary passages, or of musical instruments.

Before the crown was adopted, Sweden had several monetary units, including the riksdaler, which the crown replaced. Sweden’s currency system was decimalized in 1855. The crown was introduced as Sweden’s monetary unit in 1873, when the country became part of the Scandinavian Monetary Union (SMU) and the coins of Denmark and Norway became legal tender within Sweden. The Swedish-Norwegian union was renegotiated in 1905, and Sweden abandoned the SMU in 1931. Although Sweden is a member of the European Union (EU), it has chosen not to adopt the euro, the EU’s single currency.