Catalog
6 2/3 Riksdaler Banco
| Issuer | Sveriges Rikes Ständers Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1835-1856 |
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| Composition | Cotton paper |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in dark green intaglio on pale green paper, with the issuer's name in bold letterpress at centre reading 'Sveriges Rikes Ständers Bank'. A crowned lion passant atop a globe serves as the central vignette at the top, flanked by radiating sunburst lines. The denomination appears in two lateral oval guilloche panels reading 'Riksdr' and 'Banco', with a central oval cartouche inscribed 'Sex och Trettiotva skill.', and the date and place of issue 'Stockholm den 1e December 1841' in script lettering below. Vertical side borders carry repeated inscriptions of the denomination value, and a serial number and letter designation appear in the upper register. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is largely unprinted, showing the plain cotton paper with show-through of the obverse intaglio impression visible as a mirror image. A handwritten annotation in ink appears in the upper right corner, and several old repair patches and cancellation stamps are present, consistent with the note having circulated extensively. |
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| Comments |
Sveriges Rikes Ständers Bank — the precursor to Sveriges Riksbank — issued this note during a period when Swedish monetary denominations were still tied to the baroque fractional arithmetic of the riksdaler system, where banco, riksgälds, and specie values all floated against each other at legislated but contested rates. The 6 2/3 riksdaler denomination is not an eccentricity; it equals precisely one-third of 20 riksdaler banco, a clean fraction within the internal accounting logic of the period.
The banco designation mattered. Riksdaler banco was the more stable of the competing units, anchored to the Riksbank's own books rather than the state debt certificates underpinning riksgälds notes. Sweden's currency unification in 1855, which collapsed these parallel systems into a single riksdaler riksmynt, effectively ended the rationale for this denomination.