May 3, 2012 – The General Council of the Riksbank has decided that the competition entry “Cultural journey” will form the artistic basis for the design of Sweden’s new banknotes. In April 2011, the General Council of the Riksbank decided on the motifs for the banknotes. After that a competition was launched to design the banknotes. A jury has been working on reviewing the entries received and has now chosen Göran Österlund’s entry “Cultural journey” as the winner.
”It has been a difficult but stimulating task to choose a winner. All of the entrants have presented ambitious and well-thought out proposals, but we finally decided on ”Cultural journey”, says Peter Egardt, who is member of the General Council of the Riksbank and chairman of the competition jury. ”The overall impression is of a beautiful and user-friendly banknote series based on a fine balance of innovation and Swedish tradition.”
The jury’s written decision states that this entry is a tightly cohesive series in which the different banknotes share a common idiom and the interplay of the face and reverse sides is unambiguous and harmonious. The jury also considers that the portraits take up a good-sized part of the face of each banknote and are well-suited for engraving. The reverse sides are clear and distinct and the motifs chosen seem typical of the relevant provinces.
”Cultural journey is a proposal for a new banknote series that will bring our notes into the 21stcentury through the cultural icons of the 20thcentury.
The idea is to allow the banknotes to take us on a journey from the Öresund bridge (the bridge over to Denmark) in the south to Treriksröset (the point where the Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish borders meet) in the north”, says competition winner Göran Österlund.
What happens next?
The winning entry will be the artistic starting point for Sweden’s new banknote series. This means that banknote designers will now adapt the winning proposal for finished banknotes. The banknotes will also be equipped with security features. The finished banknotes may therefore differ slightly from the winning proposal. The banknotes will probably be introduced in 2015.
All of the entries in the design competition will also be presented at the Royal Coin Cabinet/Sweden’s Museum of Economy from 4 May. This exhibition will show some of the ideas behind the artists’ designs and explain more about the new banknotes.
We already have reported on the decision, which persons will be shown on the new banknotes. If you want to know more about this decision, please click here.