Icelandic Krona (ISK) Profile

Icelandic krona users

Icelandic krona is the currency of Iceland which is one of the five Nordic countries. The Nordic Europe countries consist of the three Scandinavian countries including the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden and Denmark, two republics of Iceland and Finland, and their associated territories of the Faroe Islands (Denmark), Greenland (Denmark) and Aland (Finland). Among them, Sweden, Finland and Denmark are the member states of the European Union (EU) and only Finland has adopted the euro.

Iceland is not the member of European Union while the idea to adopt the euro has been considered by Icelanders since 2007 especially after the 2008 financial crisis.

Icelandic krona coins and banknotes

Icelandic krona was historically subdivided into 100 aurar (singular: eyrir) but this subunit has been discontinued. AS a consequence, the originally introduced coins of 5, 10 and 50 aurar are no longer accepted by Icelandic banks. The Icelandic krona coins currently in circulation are 1, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 kronur. Banknotes of 100 kronur or less (10 and 50 kronur) have been withdrawn and now the denominations of banknotes in circulation remain 500, 1000, 2000 and 5000 kronur. 

Icelandic krona history

The Icelandic krona was established in 1918 when Scandinavian Monetary Union dissolved and Icelandic autonomy separated from Denmark.

Iceland used to be Norwegian dependency during the time of Denmark-Norway (1536-1814) and became Danish dependency in 1814 when Denmark-Norway broke up into separated kingdoms of Denmark and Norway.

In 1874, Danish krona was introduced into Iceland and replaced the legacy currency of Danish rigsdaler as a result of Scandinavian Monetary Union had been established. The Icelandic krona is a derivative of the Danish krone.

The first Icelandic krona banknotes were issued in 1885 and the first coins were introduced in 1922. ISK is the new krona of Icelandic krona which replaced the old kronur (ISJ) with 1 ISK= 100 ISJ in 1981.

Icelandic krona and the currency of crown

In English, Icelandic krona is sometimes referred to as the Icelandic crown which is sometimes used in the financial markets. The crown is a currency used in six European countries and their dependencies and dominions and crown names various because of these countries’ official language.