The nickname "Flotkróna" — roughly "floating króna" — stuck not because of any monetary policy but because the coins literally floated on water, a quirk of the aluminium-magnesium alloy that made them light enough to rest on surface tension. Icelandic fishermen reportedly used them as a running joke about the króna's purchasing power during the late 1970s, a period when Iceland was running annual inflation rates that at points exceeded 40%.
The nickname "Flotkróna" — roughly "floating króna" — stuck not because of any monetary policy but because the coins literally floated on water, a quirk of the aluminium-magnesium alloy that made them light enough to rest on surface tension. Icelandic fishermen reportedly used them as a running joke about the króna's purchasing power during the late 1970s, a period when Iceland was running annual inflation rates that at points exceeded 40%.