2016-10-13 Thu

New editions of 100-krona and 500-krona banknotes were introduced by Sweden on Monday along with the new the one-krona and five-kronor coins. A new two-krona coin was released 14 years after it was scrapped in the 1970s. The current ten-krona coin will stay the same.

The new 100-krona and 500-krona banknotes feature the Swedish movie star Greta Garbo and opera legend Birgit Nilsson respectively. The current banknotes as well as all older coins, except the ten-kronor coins, will be scrapped out completely by 30th June 2017. Officials state that it would be very difficult to attain this task.

The general public is being asked to get their old coins exchanged at various branches of the Central Bank. Many queued up at the Central Bank – the Riksbank – in central Stockholm on Monday to get fresh coins.

20, 50 and 1000-krona banknotes were scrapped and replaced early this year. Those who missed that deadline can still exchange the old notes for a 100-krona fee by sending the notes to the central bank.

Officials state that almost 82 percent of the old notes had been deposited but 1.3 billion kronor was expiring in piggy banks and pockets. Sweden is quickly becoming a cash-free society with only 2 percent of the total transactions being conducted through cash payments. Experts predict that this could be the reason why most of the old cash is still missing.