Use of 10 Syrian pound coins in Norway

The shape of the 10 Syrian pound coin has been found to so resemble the 20 Norwegian krone

Norwegian krone

The krone is the currency of Norway and its dependent territories. The plural form is kroner . It is subdivided into 100 øre. The ISO 4217 code is NOK, although the common local abbreviation is kr. The name translates into English as "crown"...

 coin that it can fool vending machines, coins-to-cash machines, arcade machines, and any other coin-operated, automated service machine in the country. While hardly similar to the naked eye, machines are unable to tell the coins apart due to an almost identical weight and size.

As of November 23, 2007, ten Syrian pounds converts to 1.07 Norwegian krone

Norwegian krone

The krone is the currency of Norway and its dependent territories. The plural form is kroner . It is subdivided into 100 øre. The ISO 4217 code is NOK, although the common local abbreviation is kr. The name translates into English as "crown"...

r, or about 0.20 United States dollar

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

. 20 NOK, on the other hand, converts to 3.70 USD, almost 18.6 times the value of the Syrian coin. While not easy to find in Norway, the Syrian coins are still used in automated machines there with such frequency that Posten Norge

Posten (Norway)

Posten Norge or Norway Post is the name of the Norwegian postal service. The word posten means the post or the mail in Norwegian. The company, owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications holds a monopoly on distribution of mail throughout the country.-History:Posten was founded...

, the Norwegian postal service, decided to close many of their coins-to-cash machines on February 18, 2006, with plans to develop a system able to differentiate between the two coins. In the summer of 2005, a Norwegian man was sentenced to 30 days, suspended

Suspended sentence

A suspended sentence is a legal term for a judge's delaying of a defendant's serving of a sentence after they have been found guilty, in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation...

, for having used Syrian coins in arcade machines in the municipality

Municipalities of Norway

Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called counties , and 430 municipalities...

 of Bærum

Bærum

is a municipality in Akershus county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Sandvika. Bærum was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838. A suburb of Oslo, Bærum is located on the west coast of the city....

.