Bank Notes from Denmark 1945 - 1952

Denmark was occupied by Germany April the 9th 1940, and from the very first day everything the Germans needed in Denmark was paid for by using a credit they got in the Danish Central Bank.

During the 5 years Denmark was occupied the circulation of money was increased. Some Danes but also many Germans got a huge amount of Danish money illegally. In 1944 the Danish administration decided to print a new series of paper money for use in a currency reform. In deep secrecy the printing was started and no one knew about it. Friday July the 20th 1945 all financial institutions in Denmark were closed at 3 pm until monday morning July the 23rd at 8:00 am. - In 1945 the saturdays were normal workdays. For some people it was a shock. If you had more than 100 Kroner you had to fill-out a registration form and what you had more than 500 Kroner you had to pay the money into a blocked account.

The coins kept their value, and people, who couldn't explain how they earned their money paid up to twice for coins, stamps etc.

The very last day the old paper money had value was the 31st of July 1945. Over 71,000,000 Kroner in the old paper money were never exchanged to the new ones.

The new bank notes were the same size and with the same type of paper as the old ones. The values 50 Kroner, 100 Kroner, and 500 Kroner the fronts were the same except the colors, only the 5 Krone and 10 Krone were changed completely.

In 1947 the 10 Krone bank note again became a part of the "Heilmann"-family.

All the new bank notes have a different reverse. All Danish bank notes issued after July 1945 are still valid!

N.B. The banknotes on this site are reproduced with permission of the
Danish National Bank