ISK 10,000 note not legal tender
Helena Natalía Albertsdóttir was not allowed to pay for her supermarket shopping with a ISK 10,000 note.
Supermarket shopper Helena Natalía Albertsdóttir was sent away empty-handed from Hagkaup in Garðabær this weekend after being told that she could not pay with a ISK 10,000 note (approx. €67). The cashier informed his customer that ISK 10,000 notes did not exist and could therefore not be accepted by the supermarket.
Some sort of joke
“I had finished my shopping and was trying to pay, when the guy at the till asked me whether this was some sort of joke,” recalls Albertsdóttir. “I had never had a ISK 10,000 note before. I got it from the bank, so I had no idea what was going on. I was told that this was not legal tender and left the supermarket empty-handed, thinking I had been given a forged note.”
Once home, Albertsdóttir asked her mother about the note, who said that what she had been told was simply rubbish. She changed her daughter’s note into smaller notes, enabling her to go pack and pay for her shopping.
Refused by mistake
The manager of the supermarket in question, Grétar Ingi Sigurðsson, was not aware of the incident but confirmed that the shop does indeed accept ISK 10,000 notes and has done ever since the note entered circulation in Iceland back in October 2013.
