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Scrap 1,000 krone note: Danish party

Denmark’s left wing Red-Green Alliance (Enhedslisten) says it wants to abolish the 1,000-krone note, the largest available denomination of the country’s currency.

Scrap 1,000 krone note: Danish party
Photo: Iris/Scanpix

Worth around 135 euros or 155 US dollars at current exchange rates, the party argues that the note is of little use to Danish citizens and primarily benefits criminals.

“We do not support a cash-free society, but there are no elderly people that go out to buy a pound of butter or a litre of milk with a 1,000 krone note,” Red-Green Alliance MP Søren Søndergaard told newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

Both the Confederation of Danish Enterprise (Dansk Erhverv) and NGO DaneAge (Ældresagen) support the left wing party’s proposal, according to the report.

Danish central bank Nationalbanken’s Payment Council (Betalingsråd) is also thought to have considered the possibility of abolishing the high value note, though the proposal is not mentioned in the council’s 2016 report, reportedly due to falling outside the council's mandate.

Digitalisation professor Jan Damsgaard of Copenhagen Business School, who was part of the council, told Jyllands-Posten that he still considered the idea to make sense.

“The 1,000 krone note is not used for shopping. It is used for asset storage. It is mattress money, black money, the property of criminals and a note for money laundering,” he said.

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According to the Payment Council report, almost half of all Danish cash value is tied into the 1,000 krone notes. 

Although many older people still prefer the use of cash to card or mobile phone payment, DaneAge said that it also supports the idea of abolishing the 1,000 krone note.

“Most elderly people can cope fine with a 500 krone note. And in cases where the 1,000 krone is preferable – in other words, when used for savings – it is not sensible to use cash anyway,” DaneAge head consultant Olav Felbo told Jyllands-Posten.

The Social Democrats and Danish People’s Party are yet to take a firm position over the issue but have not rejected the idea, according to the report.

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