A fyrk was a monetary unit used in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

in the 15th to 17th century, with a value of between 1/6 and 1/2

öre Öre () is the centesimal subdivision of the Swedish krona. In the Swedish language, the plural of ''öre'' is either ''öre'' (indefinite) or ''ören'' (definitive). The name ''öre'' derives from the Latin word ''aereus/aurum'', meaning gold. T ...

. The word is derived from

Middle Low German Middle Low German is a developmental stage of Low German. It developed from the Old Saxon language in the Middle Ages and has been documented in writing since about 1225–34 (). During the Hanseatic period (from about 1300 to about 1600), Mid ...

''vereken'' (''vierichen'') and ultimately from ''ver'' or ''vier'', a monetary unit (from ''vier'', "four"). After the monetary unit had been abolished, the word remained in use in the general sense of "small money", " pennies", "an insignificant sum"; and as a slang word for "money" in

Finland Swedish Finland Swedish or Fenno-Swedish (; ) is a Variety (linguistics), variety of the Swedish language and a closely related group of Swedish dialects spoken in Finland by the Swedish-speaking population of Finland, Swedish-speaking population, common ...

, from where it is borrowed in Finnish slang (as ). With the Swedish municipal reforms of 1862, the unit fyrk was re-used as a unit for counting

voting Voting is the process of choosing officials or policies by casting a ballot, a document used by people to formally express their preferences. Republics and representative democracies are governments where the population chooses representative ...

rights in the municipal election. Voting rights were graded according to income and assets, counted in ''fyrks'' and recorded in the , the "fyrk counting list" for each municipality. It was in use from 1863 to 1909. The or "road fyrk", a unit for road

tax A tax is a mandatory financial charge or levy imposed on an individual or legal entity by a governmental organization to support government spending and public expenditures collectively or to regulate and reduce negative externalities. Tax co ...

, remained in use until 1937. Up until 17th century fyrks were minted from

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

; later the

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

was used as the value of the coin suffered continuous

inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the average price of goods and services in terms of money. This increase is measured using a price index, typically a consumer price index (CPI). When the general price level rises, each unit of curre ...

References

"Fyrk"
in

Svenska Akademiens Ordbok A complete set of ''Svenska Akademiens ordbok'', as of late 2014. The majority of the volumes remain unbound in this set. ''Svenska Akademiens ordbok'' (), abbreviated SAOB, is a historical dictionary of the Swedish language published by the Swe ...

"Fyrk"
in

Nordisk familjebok (, 'Nordic Family Book') is a Swedish language, Swedish encyclopedia that was published in print from between 1876 and 1993, and that is now fully available in digital form via Project Runeberg at Linköping University. The public domain edit ...

, vol 9 (1908) *

Nationalencyklopedin (; "The National Encyclopedia" in English), abbreviated NE, is a comprehensive contemporary Swedish-language encyclopedia with several hundred thousand articles. It is available both online and via a printed version. History The project was ...

, s.v. "Fyrk" Economic history of Scandinavia Modern obsolete currencies {{money-unit-stub