> How"The 11th commandment: He who has a car, a truck and a row of motorscooter shall have no money."ard

Ok, it's time for a lesson in Norwegian currency. (Brace yourselves.)

As some might know, the Norwegian currency is 'kroner' (that's plural, singular is 'krone'). 1 krone is worth 100 'øre' (which, for some curious reason, is both plural and singular). 1 US dollar is worth a little less than 10 kroner nowadays.

When I was little, whe had 5 øre coins. There were also 10 øre, 25 øre, 50 øre, 1 krone and 5 kroner coins. In notes, there were 10 kroner, 50 kroner, 100 kroner, 500, 1000 and 5000.

Then, the 5 øre coin disappeared, followed by the 10 øre and the 25 øre. After that, the 10 kroner coin was introduced, effectively knocking out the 10 kroner note. And then came the 20 kroner coin and the 200 kroner note, not many years ago.

I remember that I could buy chocolate bars and icicles for 5 kroner or less, 20 years ago. Now, everything costs from 10 kroner and up. And 50 øre almost won't buy you anything anymore.

So that leaves us Norwegians with 50 øre and 1, 5, 10 and 20 kroner coins and 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1000 kroner notes. Also, as you can see in the "Notes and Coins" section of the Norwegian State Bank web site (link below), we're in the process of renewing the design of notes. We have only the 1000 kroner note left to replace.

Trav"negative account balance"holt.