500 Krónur Icelandic banknotes anniversary, 50% silver

Issued to mark the 1100th anniversary of the settlement of Iceland, this coin commemorates the traditional date of 874 AD when Ingólfr Arnarson established the first permanent Norse settlement at Reykjavík. The anniversary itself drove a wave of Icelandic commemorative issues through the mid-1980s. At 50% silver, this sits at the lower end of the commemorative alloy range — a budgetary concession common to smaller issuing nations during the period, when silver prices remained volatile following the Hunt Brothers collapse of 1980.