Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II's 50th birthday

Queen Margrethe's 50th birthday on 16 April 1990 was marked with the issue of a commemorative coin.

It was minted in two versions: a 20-krone coin of aluminium bronze, of the same size as an ordinary 20-krone coin, and a 200-krone coin of silver (800 0/00 Ag). The 20-krone coin was minted in an edition of one million, and the 200-krone coin in an edition of 100,855.

The artistic design of the commemorative coin was by Medallist Jan Petersen, who comments:

"In the initial phase Queen Margrethe expressed a wish for an innovative design. I wanted to fulfil Her Majesty's wishes, but somehow it also seemed most correct to keep to the tradition of a portrait of the Queen on a coin to celebrate her birthday. The innovative aspect would lie in the actual presentation of the portrait. I soon concluded that Queen Margrethe should wear a hat, since we are all familiar with Queen Margrethe wearing a hat.

The Queen initially had misgivings, but gave me permission to continue my project. On the basis of my first drafts Queen Margrethe soon noted that I obviously had no idea how a hat should be worn. Queen Margrethe would therefore sit for the photographer, so that I might see how a hat should be worn correctly.

On the basis of photographs and several attempts with drawings and reliefs the portrait was completed and approved by the Queen. The crown on the reverse of the commemorative coin is a simplified and stylised reproduction of the Royal Crown which I had originally created for the Danish State Railways (DSB), and which I felt would be in harmony with the type I intended to use. The flower is Queen Margrethe's favourite: the marguerite."

The commemorative coin was minted by the Royal Danish Mint.