Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1/2 Rigsdaler / 48 Skilling Colonien Julianehaab i Grønland
| Issuer | Kongelige Grønlandske Handel (Royal Greenlandic Trading Company) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1803 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Paper |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Kongelige Grönlandske Handel En halv Rigsdaler danſk Courant Denne Anviisning gielder ved Colonien Julianehaab i Grønland for 1/2 Rdlr. eller 48 Skilling danſk C. Kiøbenhavn, 1803. Den adminiſtrerende Direction for den Kongl. Grønlandſke handel (Translation: Royal Greenlandic Trading 1/2 Rigsdaler Danish Courant This note is valid at the Colony of Julianehaab in Greenland for 1/2 of a Rigsdaler or 48 Skilling Courant. Copenhagen, 1803 The administrating direction for the Royal Greenlandic Trading) |
| Reverse description | Reverse is plain and unprinted, showing only the laid paper stock with show-through of the obverse letterpress text visible from the other side. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Kongelige Grønlandske Handel occupied an unusual position in Danish colonial administration — it was a state-run monopoly that functioned as the sole economic intermediary between Denmark and Greenland, which meant its scrip carried quasi-governmental authority without being issued by a bank or treasury. These Julianehaab notes were hyper-localized instruments, valid only within a single settlement, not across Greenland as a whole. That restriction was deliberate: the KGH managed each trading colony as a closed account system, preventing cash from migrating between posts.
1803 is early in the series for Julianehaab, a settlement founded in 1775. Surviving examples are rare by any measure — the harsh subarctic storage conditions and the near-total absence of a collecting culture in colonial Greenland meant most were destroyed or simply rotted.