Norway Harald V 20 Kroner

History

20 Kroner 2002, KM# 471, Norway, Harald V, 200th Anniversary of Birth of Niels Henrik Abel

Obverse. Photo © NumisCorner.com

Description

Niels Henrik Abel (1802–1829) was a Norwegian mathematician who made pioneering contributions in a variety of fields. His most famous single result is the first complete proof demonstrating the impossibility of solving the general quintic equation in radicals. This question was one of the outstanding open problems of his day, and had been unresolved for 250 years. He was also an innovator in the field of elliptic functions, discoverer of Abelian functions. Despite his achievements, Abel was largely unrecognized during his lifetime; he made his discoveries while living in poverty and died at the age of 26.

The Abel Prize in mathematics, originally proposed in 1899 to complement the Nobel Prizes, is named in his honour.

Obverse	Person (king, queen, tsar etc.) Harald V Portrait of King Harald V of Norway facing right, inscription "Harald V, king of Norway" above, date below. Harald V (born 21 February 1937) has been the King of Norway since 1991. Harald was the only son of Olav V and Princess Märtha of Sweden and was the first Norwegian-born prince since Olav IV, who was born in 1370. He succeeded to the throne upon the death of his father on 17 January 1991. Mintmark of the Mint of Norway: ⚒ (crossed hammers) Mint officials’ initials (if any, below the date): MF (2002-2006, Magne Flagans) Engraver: Ingrid Austlid Rise (J.R-IAR) HARALD V • NORGES KONGE J.R ⚒ 2002 MF
Reverse	Person (scientist, inventor, explorer, architect etc.) Niels Henrik Abel Depicts mathematical drawings: a lemniscate figure on the left, and a picture from Abel's notebook on the right, value, date of birth and death of Abel. The engraving copies a row of ink droplets from Abel's fountain pen, which could be seen splattered down the center line. The second from the bottom ink spot was modified in order to resemble the island of Finnøy, the place where Abel spent his youth and also home of the governor of the central bank of Norway. 20 KR NIELS HENRIK ABEL 1802 1829
Edge	Plain