Norges Bank's earliest decades were marked by chronic distrust of paper money — understandable, given that the bank was founded in 1816 in the immediate aftermath of Norway's separation from Denmark and the financial wreckage that followed the Napoleonic period. The speciedaler itself was a relatively new unit, replacing the rigsdaler as Norway's standard, and large-denomination notes like this 10 Speciedalere were instruments of commercial settlement rather than everyday exchange.
Grosch was primarily an architect — he designed the Exchange building in Christiania and much of early nineteenth-century Norwegian civic infrastructure. His involvement in banknote engraving reflects how small the available pool of skilled craftsmen was in Norway at the time.
Norges Bank's earliest decades were marked by chronic distrust of paper money — understandable, given that the bank was founded in 1816 in the immediate aftermath of Norway's separation from Denmark and the financial wreckage that followed the Napoleonic period. The speciedaler itself was a relatively new unit, replacing the rigsdaler as Norway's standard, and large-denomination notes like this 10 Speciedalere were instruments of commercial settlement rather than everyday exchange.
Grosch was primarily an architect — he designed the Exchange building in Christiania and much of early nineteenth-century Norwegian civic infrastructure. His involvement in banknote engraving reflects how small the available pool of skilled craftsmen was in Norway at the time.