Iceland P-39 25 Kronur 1957 F Fine "Landsbanki Íslands - Seðlabankinn" version

A purple gem from the edge of the world — Iceland's 1957 25 Krónur note pairs one of the country's great Enlightenment figures with a view of one of its most dramatic landscapes, printed by one of Britain's most celebrated security printers. Issued in 1960 and demonetized in 1975, this note captures Iceland at the precise moment it was transitioning from a remote fishing nation into a modern republic.

Front

• Portrait: Magnús Stephensen (1762–1833), Iceland's first Chief Justice and a central figure of the Icelandic Enlightenment, in vignette at left
• Vignette: view of Ísafjörður, the principal town of the Westfjords — one of Iceland's most remote and dramatically situated communities, nestled between steep fjord walls and the sea
• Underprint: multicoloured guilloche underprint beneath purple dominant engraving
• Text: LANDSBANKI ÍSLANDS–SEÐLABANKINN / TUTTUGU OG FIMM KRÓNUR / SAMKVÆMT LÖGUM NR. 63. 21. JÚNÍ 1957
• Signatures: Vilhjálmur Þór (VÞ) and Jón G. Maríasson (JGM)
• Designer: Halldór Pétursson

Back

• Vignette: panoramic view of Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Islands), the volcanic archipelago off Iceland's south coast — just thirteen years after this note was issued, the eruption of Eldfell volcano in 1973 would force the evacuation of the entire island population overnight
• Text: 25 / VESTMANNAEYJAR in purple print
• Designer: Halldór Pétursson

Other Characteristics

• Varieties:
  • P-39a — signatures VÞ, JGM — this note
  • P-39s — Specimen
• Catalog numbers: P-39a; SIEG SD#45; Numista N#216476
• Watermark: portrait of Sveinn Björnsson, the first President of Iceland (1944–1952)
• Composition: Paper
• Size: 140 × 70 mm
• Issuing entity: Landsbanki Íslands – Seðlabankinn (National Bank of Iceland – Central Bank)
• Printer: Bradbury Wilkinson and Company, United Kingdom (1856–1990)
• Issued: 4 May 1960 (under law of 21 June 1957)
• Demonetized: 14 May 1975 (withdrawn by law of 2 February 1973)
• Currency: Old Icelandic Króna (1885–1980)
• Official language: Icelandic

About Iceland

• Origin of name: Named by the Norse settler Hrafna-Flóki Vilgerðarson around 865 AD, who, after a harsh winter, climbed a mountain and saw a fjord full of sea ice — and called the land Ísland (Ice Land). The name stuck, despite Iceland being far greener than Greenland.
• Capital: Reykjavík — city population ~140,000; metro ~230,000
  • Origin of name: Reykjavík means "Smoky Bay" in Old Norse — named by the first permanent settler, Ingólfr Arnarson, around 874 AD, for the steam rising from the geothermal hot springs he saw on arrival
• Population: ~380,000 (UN 2024) — roughly the city of Minneapolis
• Area: 103,000 km² (39,769 mi²) — slightly larger than Kentucky; smaller than Iceland's neighbor Greenland by a factor of 21
• GDP per capita (PPP): ~$75,000 (IMF 2024) — one of the highest in the world
• Main exports: fish and seafood, aluminum, ferrosilicon, tourism services, pharmaceuticals
• Borders: None — Iceland is an island nation in the North Atlantic, with no land borders
• Official/spoken language: Icelandic — one of the most conservative Germanic languages, still mutually intelligible with Old Norse texts from the 13th century
• Ethnicities: Icelanders (~85%, descended from Norse settlers and Irish/Scottish thralls brought by the Vikings), with growing Polish, Lithuanian, and other European communities
• Memberships: United Nations (1946); NATO (1949; founding member); Council of Europe (1949; founding member); European Economic Area (1994); Schengen Area (2001) — notably NOT a member of the EU
• Sovereignty:
  • Settlement (874–930) — Norse settlers, led by Ingólfr Arnarson, colonize an uninhabited island; Irish monks (papar) may have arrived earlier
  • Althing established (930) — one of the world's oldest parliaments, founded at Þingvellir; Iceland governed as a commonwealth (þjóðveldið)
  • Norwegian rule (1262–1397) — Iceland submits to the Norwegian crown after civil strife
  • Danish rule (1397–1944) — passes to Denmark via the Kalmar Union; Denmark retains Iceland after Norway is ceded to Sweden in 1814
  • Home Rule / Union with Denmark (1874–1944) — Iceland receives its own constitution in 1874; becomes a sovereign state in personal union with Denmark in 1918
  • Republic of Iceland (1944–present) — declared independence on 17 June 1944 while Denmark was under German occupation; this note issued during this period

Iceland Unfiltered

• Iceland has no standing army — it is one of only a handful of sovereign nations with no military forces, relying on NATO membership and a small coast guard
• The entire country runs on nearly 100% renewable energy — geothermal and hydropower — making it one of the greenest energy grids on Earth
• In 2008, Iceland's banking system collapsed spectacularly: three major banks failed within a week, with combined debts ten times the country's GDP — the largest banking collapse relative to GDP in history
• Iceland recovered faster than almost any other country from the 2008 crisis — partly by letting the banks fail, prosecuting bankers, and devaluing the króna rather than imposing austerity
• The Landvættir — the four guardian spirits of Iceland (dragon, eagle, bull, and giant) — appear on Iceland's coat of arms and are taken seriously enough that road construction has historically been rerouted to avoid disturbing rocks believed to house huldufólk (hidden people)
• Iceland has the world's oldest active parliament (the Althing, est. 930 AD) and one of the world's highest literacy rates — both dating to the same medieval culture that produced the Sagas
• Icelanders use a patronymic naming system: children take their father's (or mother's) first name as their surname with -son or -dóttir appended — there is no family surname tradition, and a phone book is sorted by first name
• The Westman Islands (Vestmannaeyjar, shown on this note's reverse) were evacuated in a single night in January 1973 when Eldfell volcano erupted without warning — residents were told to leave immediately and most never returned to find their homes intact

The Enlightenment at the Edge of the World

Magnús Stephensen (1762–1833) was Iceland's first Chief Justice and its most prominent Enlightenment figure — a man who believed that reason, education, and modern governance could transform what was then one of Europe's most isolated and impoverished societies. He founded Iceland's first printing press, published the country's first newspaper, and campaigned for legal reform at a time when most Icelanders lived in turf houses and survived on dried fish. Placing him on the 25 Krónur note was a statement of national identity: Iceland is a civilization, not just a fishing outpost.

The view of Ísafjörður on the obverse reinforces this. Ísafjörður sits at the end of a narrow fjord in the Westfjords — the most remote peninsula of an already remote island — surrounded by mountains that drop almost vertically into the sea. It is the kind of place that makes you understand why Icelanders developed such a rich interior life: the Sagas, the Eddas, the poetry. When the landscape is that extreme, the mind turns inward.

Vestmannaeyjar: The Island That Burned

The reverse of this note shows Vestmannaeyjar — the Westman Islands — in the calm of the early 1960s. Thirteen years later, on January 23, 1973, the island of Heimaey woke up to a volcanic fissure that had opened overnight. The entire population of 5,300 people was evacuated by fishing boat in a single night. The lava flow destroyed 400 homes and threatened to close the harbor — which would have ended the island's economy permanently. Icelanders pumped seawater onto the advancing lava for months, successfully cooling and redirecting it. Most residents eventually returned.

This note, demonetized just two years after that eruption, captures Vestmannaeyjar as it was before the world knew its name.

Bradbury Wilkinson: The Printer's Printer

This note was printed by Bradbury Wilkinson and Company of New Malden, Surrey — one of the most respected security printers in the world from the mid-19th century until its closure in 1990. Bradbury Wilkinson printed banknotes for dozens of countries, as well as British postage stamps and share certificates. Their engraving work is characterized by exceptional fine-line detail and rich intaglio depth. The purple tones and multicoloured underprint on this note are a showcase of their craft at its mid-century best.

Own this note and you hold a piece of Iceland's republican dawn — a country that had just declared independence, was building its institutions, and chose to honor its Enlightenment past and its volcanic present on the same small rectangle of paper.