On the 1st of May 2012 the 50 øre coin was made redundant by Norges Bank (the Norwegian National Bank). This means that the last remaining “decimal” coin in Norwegian currency is no longer legal tender.

The decision to  pull the coin out of circulation was made by the National Bank last year, after much debate. The bank has had to produce between NOK 15-22 million worth of 50 øre coins every year to cover the demand. Shops need the coins to give correct change back to customers, whereas customers rarely use them as payment. As such, Norwegians have a considerable amount of 50 øre coins lying around – according to the National Bank there are about 370 million coins in circulation, at a value of NOK 185 million.

This is the last of the “øre”-coins to go, after the 10 øre was withdrawn in 1993. With the 50 øre gone, all cash transactions will now be rounded off to the nearest krone at the checkout.

People with a jar full of small change need not despair just yet, though. The National Bank will accept returned coins until 2022, as long as the number of coins is a multiple of 100.

via Norges Bank and Aftenposten.no 

Bård Klungland, a butcher from the town of Lunde in the south of Norway, was about to close his shop for the night when the phone rang. Leaving his bicycle unlocked out front, he went in to answer the call. When he came back out 15 minutes later, the bike had been stolen.

Unwilling to accept the loss, Klungland put an ad in the local newspaper asking for help to retrieve his bike. He also promised an unusual reward to the finder: 5 kgs of sausages.

Just a few days later, the bicycle was found. Klungland kept his part of the deal and rewarded the finder with 5 kgs of his own produce. The finder wanted to remain anonymous, but was allegedly very happy with the meaty reward. Klungland’s bike was also perfectly intact.

It should be mentioned that the sausages have a market value of about 600 Norwegian kroner.

Via fvn.no and NRK

Image: Wikimedia Commons

You wouldn’t think that, in a nation obsessed with dieting, the first thing to become in short supply was fat. Well, that’s the current situation. All over Norway, the store shelves have been pretty much stripped clean of butter for a month. People are in despair, since most of the baking and cooking in preparation for Christmas requires butter, butter and more butter.

One reason for this shortage is a chain reaction that started last summer: Plenty of rainy weather makes grass wet. Wet grass causes a poor harvest of winter feed. Cows get less nutrition and produce less milk. Less milk goes to processing, and… well you get the idea. Bottom line is, Tine BA, the leading dairy producer in Norway, is currently only able to produce about 70% of the demand. They are trying to increase the production leading up to Christmas by re-prioritising how the milk is to be used, but they don’t expect to be at normal capacity until January.

There is, however, another reason for the lack of butter that struck me as somewhat odd: The low-carb diet(!). That’s right, this diet fad has hit Norway with full force, and people desperate to lose weight are scoffing down that butter like it’s going out of style. Apparently, the low-carb diet dictates that you can eat all the fat you want, so butter has become the new healthy(?) drug of choice for diet fanatics everywhere.

Meanwhile, the media is all over this national Christmas crisis, with daily front-page stories on how the production is going, how to adapt your favourite Christmas recipes to use margarine instead, and even how to make your own butter. Small-scale producers and farm shops are making good money off the shortage, with some of them experiencing triple the amount of orders and struggling to keep up. There are also people who know how to make a few extra bucks off the shortage, including one person who put one pack of butter on auction at the Norwegian classifieds website finn.no – with a starting bid of NOK 300,-! Mostly as a joke, but also as a message to the low-carb congregation to leave the butter alone and eat lard instead.

The ad reads: 1/2 kg Tine butter to the highest bidder.
Description: Hello, dear low-carb person. I have come across some butter, and I am selling it to the highest bidder. This is quality butter from Tine, not to be missed. First come, first served.

Norway’s long coastline is prone to get hit with bad weather quite frequently, and it is not rare for the winds to reach hurricane strength. Yesterday almost the entire West coast of Norway was ravaged by one of the worst storms in years, codenamed "Berit". Berit caused damage as far north as Finnmark and as far south as Bergen. Several harbours and airports were flooded when water levels reached up to 4 meters above normal. In Hordaland, north of Bergen, a bus was blown off the road, and there are several reports of roofs or entire buildings being carried away.

The exposed Lofoten archipelago was, not surprisingly, hit the hardest. Several piers and airports were flooded, a number of boat sheds got blown to smithereens, waves crashed in through livingroom windows, a section of highway was washed to sea, and a small chicken barn suddenly became a chicken boat. A Christmas party at a local pub came to a sudden stop when water started seeping up through the floor and the whole building was rocking. On the island of Værøy, all 750 inhabitants are currently cut off from the world with no electricity, and with both the ferry dock and the helicopter pad destroyed. The airport has also taken heavy damage. The islanders and their mayor are keeping up the spirit, though, and they expect communications to be restored by Monday.

Fortunately, there are no reports of death or serious injury after the storm, much thanks to an efficient early warning system and good media exposure.

If you want to learn more about the naming system for storms in Norway, read our accompanying post Naming Storms (coming soon).

Via ABC Nyheter, NRK and VG.no