Niels Henrik Abel Memorial Coin

The NOK 20 coin was put in circulation August 5, 2002.

	Obverse: H.M. King Harald V.’s portrait in profile seen from the right. Around the portrait: HARALD V. NORGES KONGE. To the left of the portrait’s neck view: The artist’s initials: IAR. Under the portrait: the year 2002 with the Royal Norwegian Mint’s mintmark, the crossed pick and hammer, to the left and the initials of the Director of the Mint Magne Flågan to the right.
	Reverse: A segment of Abel’s rough book, together with the socalled "lemniscate". It has the shape of a figure 8, and is a degree four curve with many interesting properties that were studied in depth by Abel. The other signs can not be linked to any specific mathematical theory. To the right of the lemniscate: 20 KR and underneath, across the coin: Niels Henrik Abel and 1802 1829 placed one above the other at the bottom. Apart from the lemniscate in Abel’s hand the illustrations on the coin are taken from one of Abel’s rough books. In the middle of the coin we see a vertical row with ink spots. The next to the last is, however, not exactly the way it appears in Abel’s book. The ink spot has been altered so that on the coin it has the same shape as Finnøy! A tribute to the place where Niels Henrik Abel spent his first years — and maybe also to the Governor of Norges Bank, Svein Gjedrem, who also comes from Finnøy.
	Finnøy: Satelite photo of Finnøy.