Sweden's New Banknotes

End of June 2018 (last column is millions of notes)
1,017 kr : 20 kr : 50.9
958 kr : 50 kr : 19.2
3,077 kr : 100 kr : 30.8
5,662 kr : 200 kr : 28.3
36,210 kr : 500 kr : 72.4
3,388 kr : 1,000 kr : 3.4
50,312 kr : total : 204.9

PRESS RELEASE
The Riksbank has today, 19 June 2018, given notice of termination of its contract with Crane AB, the company that prints Swedish banknotes. The reason for the termination is that Crane has announced that it will be closing its banknote printing operations in Tumba at the end of this year and moving them to its plant on Malta. As the agreement with Crane states that they will print Swedish banknotes at the printing works in Tumba, the Riksbank is now giving notice of termination of the contract. The Riksbank is now working on finding a new supplier to manufacture Swedish banknotes.

The Riksbank had its own production of both coins and banknotes until the early 2000s. In 2001, the Swedish Mint was sold to Mint of Finland and in 2002 Tumba Bruk was sold to the American company Crane. Since then, the Riksbank has procured the manufacture of both banknotes and coins on the international market. Banknotes have continued to be printed in Tumba, while coins have been manufactured abroad since 2008. The Riksbank is now working on finding a new supplier to manufacture Swedish banknotes. The Riksbank has very stringent requirements of both quality and security in its public procurements. As the Riksbank observes the Public Procurement Act, Swedish banknotes could also be manufactured abroad.

Maybe they shouldn't bother. When this batch runs out just don't distribute any more.

Do you think they should continue with their efforts to procure a new supplier of banknotes or just stop making them entirely.

The exchange rate is close to 10:1 which if they fixed the exchange rate, they could just use Euros.
1 SEK = 0.0964207 EUR
1 EUR = 10.3712 SEK

Swedish banknotes will not be printed in Malta
Published 18/05/2018
Crane AB, which prints Swedish banknotes, has announced that it will be winding up the banknote printing works in Tumba and will instead continue its operations in Malta. The Riksbank's agreement with Crane AB states that Swedish banknotes will be printed in Tumba. There is no question of moving the production of Swedish banknotes to Malta. The Riksbank is working on finding a solution for continued production of Swedish banknotes.

The secrecy extends to the number of coins minted as well.

Riksbank Statement
The Riksbank is responsible for providing Sweden with banknotes and coins. Our tasks include issuing banknotes and coins, destroying worn-out banknotes and coins and redeeming invalid banknotes. The Riksbank does not govern how much cash is in circulation in society; this is instead determined by demand from the general public.
https://www.riksbank.se/en-gb/notes-and-coins/

This 18 page paper by Ron Delnavio is an "advocacy document" since he works for an organization that promotes ATM use. However, the document analyzes the Riksbank's claim that the reduction in cash in Sweden since 2007 is entirely related to lack of demand by the general public.
https://www.atmia.com/files/Europe%...h-report.pdf

Riksbank has a ton of statistics that show how the use of cash is declining in Swedish society.
For instance the average number of days between ATM withdrawals follows.
2010 17
2012 20
2014 22
2016 24
2018 27
The average amount of cash withdrawn is down to about 800kr which is roughly US$100.

Supposedly Swedish society is roughly evenly divided in their feeling about the loss of cash between negative, neutral, fairly positive, and enthusiastic. Rural areas understandably are more negative with 20% of responders feeling "very negative".

The urban youth (predictably) are the ones most likely to use cash less and less.
====================
A personal observation is that if the Riksbank decides to eliminate banknotes entirely, it should consider producing new coins in denominations of 20kr, 50kr and 100kr and encourage reasonable circulation even if that means suggesting that casinos use the coins. In the event of a massive solar flare, at least people will have cash to function for a few days.

For those people who think I am paranoid, I should note that the solar super storm in 2012 missed the Earth by only 9 days. Estimates are that the damage to the global economy would have to be calculated in trillions of dollars and the economy would take years to recover. The 2012 storm was of the same magnitude as the 1859 storm that wiped out communications on the newly created telegraph system. The magnetic field was so intense that some telegraph operators reported they could still send a telegram even after the power supply was disconnected.