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The Scandinavian Monetary Union, or Skandinaviska myntunionen in Swedish and Skandinaviske møntunion in Danish, was formed by Sweden and Denmark on May 5, 1873 by fixing their currencies against gold at par to each other. Norway, which was in union with Sweden, however with full inner autonomy, entered the union two years later, in 1875 by pegging its currency to gold at the same level as Denmark and Sweden. The monetary union was one of the few tangible results of the Scandinavian political movement of the 19th century.

The union provided fixed exchange rates and stability in monetary terms, but the member countries continued to issue their own separate currencies. Even if it was not initially foreseen, the perceived security led to a situation where the formally separate currencies were accepted on a basis of "as good as" the legal tender virtually throughout the entire area.

Upon acceding to the union Sweden had the name of its currency changed from Riksdaler Riksmynt to Krona. Krone was already the name of the Danish currency and when Norway joined they also had a Norwegian Krone. The name literally means CrownThe crown originally known as the "crown of the double rose", was a British coin introduced as part of King Henry VIII's monetary reform of 1526. The first coins were minted in gold, and the first silver crowns were not produced until the reign of King Ed and the differences in spelling of the name represent the differences between the Scandinavian languagesNorth Germanic languages is any of several Germanic languages spoken in Scandinavia, parts of Finland and on the islands west of Scandinavia. There are two main branches, Insular (West-) North Germanic and Continental (East-) North Germanic or Scandinavia.

In 1905Events January-April January 22 Massacre of Russian demonstrators at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, one of the triggers of the abortive Russian Revolution of 1905. January 26 The Cullinan Diamond is found near Pretoria, South Africa at the Premier the political union between Sweden and Norway was dissolved, but this did not affect the basis for co-operation in the monetary union. It was instead the outbreak of World War IWorld War I (also known as the First World War , the Great War the War of the Nations and the "War to End All Wars") was a world conflict occurring from 1914 to 1918. No previous conflict had mobilized so many soldiers, or involved so many in the field of, in 1914Events January 4 77 seal hunters freeze to death on ice near Labrador January 5 Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor February 13 Copyright: In New York City the ASCAP (for American Society of Compos that brought an end to the monetary union. Sweden abandoned the tie to gold on August 2August 2 is the 214th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (215th in leap years), with 151 days remaining. Events 338 BC Rise of Macedon: Philip of Macedon crushes Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea. 216 BC Punic Wars: In the Battle of Cann, 1914 and without a fixed exchange rate the free circulation came to an end.

Sweden, Norway and Denmark still uses the same currencies as during the monetary union, but they lost their peg, one to one, in 1914. The IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is an island nation in the northern Atlantic Ocean, located between Greenland and Scotland, northwest of the Faroe Islands. Lydveldid Island ( In Detail) (Full size) National motto: none Official languageNone. Icelandic de facto''.ic Króna is a derivative of the Danish Krone, after the island gained independence from Denmark in 1918, and then full sovereignty in 1944.

Today, these are some of the few countries in western Europe that are not members of an even more ambitious project: the Euro.