The thousand-krone note will retire on Saturday

Saturday is the deadline to spend the last thousand Danish kroner in the stores – but not on just anything.

If you want to pay with thousand-kroner notes in stores across the country, Saturday is your very last chance. The notes become worthless after closing time. They can no longer be cashed in the bank.

Danish Industry believes that it is a good thing that the thousand-krone banknotes are being retired. It makes shopping easier and safer for employees and stores.

“There is less cash being paid than before, and therefore the large banknotes have often caused some problems at the checkout,” says Jacob Kjeldsen, director of DI Handel.

“Because we know that the large bills are also used to try to fool the clerk when the trick thieves ask to buy a cheap lighter and then have their money changed,” he adds.

Even though it’s the last chance to burn the big bills on Saturday, you can’t buy just anything with the thousand-rupee notes.

Since June last year, stores have had the option to reject thousand-kroner banknotes for purchases under 250 kroner.

In addition to the thousand-krone banknotes, there are also a number of other banknotes that will now become invalid.

These are older banknote series from 1944, 1952, 1972 and 1997.

“It’s time for us to retire the old banknotes from the 1940s up to and including 1997, so that the cashier will not be able to identify banknotes that are 2-3-4 times older than themselves,” says Jacob Kjeldsen.

Although you can no longer use thousand-kroner banknotes as a means of payment after May 31, it is still possible to have them exchanged for cash.

If applicable, this must be done in one of the three special Forex exchange offices in Aarhus, Odense and Copenhagen, which offer to exchange them for valid banknotes.

The extended exchange option is valid until May 31, 2026.

The latest statement from the Nationalbank from April showed that there were still 1.7 billion kroner worth of thousand-kroner banknotes in circulation.

ritzau