Norges Bank to issue coinage in honour of Knut Hamsun

So everyone likes shiny new money right? Well bibliophiles will have even more reason to love it come February 19th, when the Norges Bank issues a special commemorative coin in honour of one of Norway’s finest Nobel laureate, Knut Hamsun.

Marking this year’s 150th anniversary of Hamsun’s birth, the silver 200-krone commemorative coin, (which is limited to an issue run of 40,000 coins and costs NOK 450 (around £45 or $66)), features the Norwegian coat-of-arms on it’s face and a Hamsun flavoured design on it’s reverse. Over to Norges Bank for the details:

The reverse of the coin, designed by Enzo Finger, features Hamsun’s signature, the year of his birth and of the anniversary, a reproduction of Hamsun’s notes for his novel Markens Grøde (Growth of the Soil) with the author’s features partially visible through the text. The portrait is based on an etching by Horst Jansse.

Sounds exquisite eh? I know it’s difficult to make out the Hamsun design in the image above (is it me or does the image make Hamsun look more like a relief map of Portugal? )) but I’m sure the design is every bit as good as the description would suggest.

So what’s the betting that Hamsun’s un-named starve crazed writer from Hunger (one of my favourite novels of all-time), would have liked a few of these coins rattling around in his pocket, while he wandered the streets of Kristiania? ) Things would have certainly turned out a whole lot different for him wouldn’t they? Then again I suppose the title of the novel would have been different too. How does ‘Bloated’ or ‘Stuffed’ sound? )

Anyway if you’re interested in buying one these coins then you can order one right now from Norges Bank, and they promise to get it into your eager, sweaty hands as close to the issue date as possible.

P.S. Mrs. Rob isn’t going to let me buy one of these coins this time around (she made some ‘witty’ comment about waiting until Hamsun’s 300th anniversary )), so if you’re lucky enough to get one of these coins then I’d love for you to send me over a better picture of it.