There was a happy sequel to the saga of unwanted Danish kroners in my wallet at the end of my trip to Denmark last October/November. On that occasion, I couldn’t find a way to get rid of 150 kroners (€20) in cash, utterly useless outside of that country, that remained from having been forced to buy Danish cash while on holiday there. I didn’t want to waste this money on any useless stuff, so I ended up buying a set of four energy-saving bulbs to take home to Belgium with me. They’ll certainly come handy eventually.
Except that I still didn’t manage to usefully spend all the cash I had had to exchange. A month or so later, I discovered a lone surviving 2 kroner coin in my wallet.
Dammit! Twenty-three euro cent from my own hard earned savings, going to waste all because the Danes refuse to use the same currency as their neighbours.
But then I had another brainwave, almost as good as when I converted 150 kroners into four energy-saving bulbs at a supermarket in Tønder, southern Jutland, Denmark. The second brainwave also occurred in a supermarket, a setting which is clearly a stimulus for economic and financial creativity, at least in my case. You see, the 2 kroner coin fits snugly into the slot reserved for unlocking a Delhaize supermarket shopping trolley.
So now, a further two months on from its discovery, the humble monetary relic from Denmark still sits happily in a recess of my car dashboard, faithfully waiting to serve this useful purpose every time I go shopping.
It’s the best value for money ever to have been obtained from 2 Danish kroner outside of Denmark.
The Wanderer 