| Danish 1 Krone Coin |
The krone was introduced as legal tender in Denmark in 1873, and was a result of the Scandinavian Monetary Union, which lasted until World War I. The parties to the monetary union was the Scandinavian countries of Sweden and Denmark from the start, with Norway joining two years later.
The name of the currency was Krone in Denmark and Norway, and Krona in Sweden, which in English literally means Crown. After dissolution of the monetary union Denmark, Norway and Sweden all decided to keep the name of their respective and now separate currencies.
Denmark negotiated special "opt-outs" of the Maastricht Treaty that allowed the country to maintain the Krone while the rest of the EU adopted a common currency, the Euro, in 1999. A referendum in 2000 reconfirmed the population's attachment to the Krone. As of early 2004 the conservative government of Anders Fogh Rasmussen was planning on holding another referendum on abolishing the Krone in the near future.
The krone is pegged closely to the euro in ERM II, the EU's exchange rate mechanism.
See also: Norwegian Krone, Swedish Krona, Icelandic Króna, Estonian Kroon, Czech Koruna