Originally, penning was first minted in Norway by the Norwegian king Olaf Tryggvason from the year 995, and was later adapted in both Sweden and Denmark as a coin system.
The penning was minted in imitation of the pennies, pfennig and deniers issued elsewhere in Europe.
In 1524, however, the real örtug was replaced in minted form with a new one, also known as halvöre (half öre), which had a little higher value (whereas one mark was divided into 24 örtugar, it was divided into 16 halvöre), but the old örtug remained as a counting unit until 1777.
The conversion between the different units of currency in use at that time can be summarized as: In 1604, the daler was renamed the riksdaler.
There followed a period of very complicated currency, during which both copper and silver versions of the different denominations circulated and the riksdaler rose in value relative to the other units.