Norway 10-ØRE (KM411)¶
-
Reverse: HONEYBEE
-
Obverse: Royal crown and monogram of King Olav V
- Composition
- Copper-nickel
- Country
- Norway
- Approx. Size
- 15mm
- Area
- Europe
- Animal Class
- Arthropods
- Species
- Honey bee
- KM#
- 411
Information on this coin is scarce. According to Hans-Otto Johnsen, a commercial beekeeper in Norway, Scandinavia is dominated by hobby beekeepers (Bee Culture - May 2005). As for the history of honeybees in Norway, there is no historical record before 1775, but archeological evidence shows honeybees present in southern Norway around 1200 CE. The bee depicted here may be the European dark bee.
This coin was minted from 1959 to 1973, and is only one of a handful of circulating world coins that feature an insect, most of which are bees.
Norway¶
- Area
- Europe
Norway is a country of incredible beauty and biological diversity, with its famous fjords along its huge North Atlantic coastline and 60,000 or more animal species in its large number of different habitats. The area has been inhabited for at least 12,000 years. The Viking age lasted from the 8th to 11th centuries, and sometime around the end of the 9th century the land was first united under one Viking king.Norway's economy underwent rapid expansion after World War II, first due mainly to shipping and later (1970s onward) due to oil and natural gas development. Today, Norway is the wealthiest country in the world with the largest capital reserve per capita of any nation on earth. In August 2009 Norway's Government Pension Fund announced that it owned 1% of all the stocks in the world.
The people of Norway have twice rejected membership in the European Union. They are a founding member of NATO and the UN, to whom they are one of the largest financial contributors. Norway was an early adopter of women's rights, minority rights, and LGBT rights. They placed second in the 2008 Environmental Performance Index and first in the 2009 Worldwide Press Freedom Index. (Along with Denmark, Finland, Ireland, and Sweden. By comparison, Canada ranks #19 and USA is #20.) The death penalty was abolished in 1902, and Norway has the lowest homicide rate in the world. A recent Gallup poll reveals that for 80% of Norway's citizens religion does not occupy an important place in their life, making Norway one of the most secular countries in the world.
