10 Kroner - Margrethe II Little Mermaid - Silver Issue

Issued to commemorate the centenary of Hans Christian Andersen's birth year — 1805 — this coin was part of Denmark's extensive national program marking the anniversary of the country's most internationally recognized author. The Royal Danish Mint released several pieces under this program, with this silver issue occupying the prestige tier alongside base-metal circulation strikes carrying identical motifs.

Andersen was born in Odense to a shoemaker father and died in Copenhagen in 1875, never having seen the bronze Edvard Eriksen sculpture on the Langelinie promenade that would become the story's most famous physical embodiment — that statue wasn't installed until 1913.