5 Krónur - Christian IX Landssjóður Íslands

Iceland's first purpose-designed banknote, issued not by a bank but by the state treasury — an institution with no history of note-issuing before 1885. The decision to bypass the banking system entirely reflected the absence of any chartered commercial bank in Iceland at the time. Thiele of Copenhagen, already well established as a printer of Danish government securities, executed the engraving from Henrik Olrik's design, making this essentially a Danish production for an Icelandic administration.

P#1 status means surviving examples are genuinely rare. Most circulated heavily in a cash-poor island economy where paper was not easily replaced.