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1 Krone Handelsstederne i Grønland. Type I: Handwritten serial number
| Issuer | Kongelige Grønlandske Handel (Royal Greenland Trade Department) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1897 |
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| Size | 124 × 81 mm |
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| Obverse description | Blue letterpress on white paper with a decorative rectangular frame bearing the denomination in numerals at each corner and spelled out in text on three sides; the handwritten serial number appears at the bottom of the frame. The central vignette presents the face value above a pair of dolphins flanking a trident, flanked on each side by the Greenlandic crowned polar bear coat of arms with the bears facing left. Promissory text in Danish appears above and below the central motif. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Denne Anvisning gælder ved Handelsstederne i Grönland for EN KRONE KJØBENHAVN 1897 (Translation: This note is valid at the trading posts in Greenland for one Krone Copenhagen 1897) |
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| Comments |
The Kongelige Grønlandske Handel was not a central bank but a Danish state trading monopoly that controlled virtually every aspect of economic life in Greenland — imports, exports, labour, and eventually currency. These krone notes were issued for use exclusively within Greenlandic trading posts, functioning more as company scrip than sovereign currency. They could not be freely exchanged outside the system.
The handwritten serial numbers on Type I place this among the earliest issues of the series, before volume justified a printed sequence. That detail alone tells you something about the scale of the intended circulation — small, controlled, and tightly administered from Copenhagen.