9 of 10 Swedes know that the older 50 and 1,000-krona banknotes without foil strip will become invalid at the end of the year
Date
13/12/2013
Over the autumn, the Riksbank has conducted the information campaign "Check your money!" to inform the public that the 50 and 1,000-krona banknotes without foil strips will become invalid after 31 December. A survey by Sifo now indicates that 9 of 10 people in Sweden are aware of this.
The "Check your money!" campaign encouraged members of the public to check whether they had any older 50 or 1,000-krona banknotes without foil strips in their possession. The campaign included a pamphlet that was sent to all 4.5 million households in Sweden. The pamphlet has also been translated into the most common minority and immigrant languages. Appropriate initiatives with various forms of information material have been aimed at banks and the retail trade. Special efforts have been made to reach people who find it more difficult to take in traditional public information.
"Our target has been to get as many as possible to know that these banknotes will soon become invalid. The more who know about it, the smaller the risk will be that older 50 and 1,000-krona banknotes will remain in people's desk drawers after the end of the year" says Christina Wejshammar, Head of Division at the Riksbank.
The Sifo survey was carried out between 11–20 November and consisted of 2,000 interviews with individuals from the age of 15 and up. Of these, 88 per cent answered yes to the question "Are you aware that the older versions of the 50-krona and 1,000-krona banknotes, the ones without a foil strip, will become invalid after 31 December 2013?" When the same question was asked in February, 21 per cent replied that they knew of the withdrawal.
Banknotes and coins will be replaced in stages
The withdrawal of the older 50-krona and 1,000-krona banknotes without a foil strip is the first step in the replacement of the entire banknote and coin series that will be carried out in 2015 – 2017. The main reasons for the replacement are to make it more difficult to counterfeit the banknotes and to make the coins cheaper and easier to handle. The replacement will be carried out in stages, in line with the wishes of the retail sector, the banks and the cash-in-transit companies.
50-krona banknote without foil band ,
50-krona banknote with foil band ,
1,000-krona banknote without foil band ,
1000-krona banknote with foil band ,
