One of Danmarks Nationalbank’s objectives is to promote safe payments. This is done by ensuring that the quality of the security and design features of banknotes and coins is so high that people have confidence in them.

Danmarks Nationalbank has a monopoly on producing banknotes and coins in the Kingdom of Denmark. Originally, the King was responsible for manufacturing money, but with the establishment of ‘Nationalbanken i Kjøbenhavn’ as a private limited company in 1818, this monopoly was transferred to the bank. Nevertheless, Danish coins still bear a reference to the Crown with motifs such as the royal crown, the national coat of arms, the Queen’s monogram and portraits of the royal family. Danmarks Nationalbank decides which motifs to put on Danish banknotes and coins.

Society’s demand for new banknotes and coins has been falling for some years. The latest figures from 2019 show that only 16 per cent of payments in physical stores today are cash payments. In 2014, Danmarks Nationalbank therefore decided to initiate a process to discontinue the internal printing of banknotes and minting of coins in the course of 2016. Here you can see a film about the production of banknotes, coins and medals at Danmarks Nationalbank (in Danish) as it was done up to 2016.