10 Kroner

Nationalbanken i Kjøbenhavn issued this note under the authority granted by the 1818 charter, though by the 1870s the bank was operating in a Denmark freshly reoriented after the catastrophic loss of Schleswig-Holstein in 1864. The low denomination served a working population still adjusting to the decimal krone system introduced in 1875 as part of the Scandinavian Monetary Union — a currency arrangement Denmark entered alongside Sweden and Norway that pegged all three currencies at par.

Henrik Olrik was primarily a sculptor and medallist, an unusual background for a banknote designer, and one that shows in the crisp, relief-conscious quality of the engraved work he produced for the series.