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1 Rigsdaler / 96 Skilling Colonien Julianehaab i Grønland
| Issuer | Kongelige Grønlandske Handel (Royal Greenlandic Trading Company) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1803 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | Plain typeset note within a simple printed border, with the issuing authority "Kongelige Grönlandske Handel" at the upper left and a small inset frame in the upper right corner bearing the denomination value. The central field carries a letterpress promissory text in Danish, specifying the note's validity at the Colony of Julianehaab in Greenland for 1 Rigsdaler or 96 Skilling Danish Courant, dated Copenhagen 1803. The text concludes with the authorization of the administrating directorate of the Royal Greenlandic Trading Company, with space for manuscript signature. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Reverse is blank, showing only the aged cream-coloured paper with fold lines and light toning consistent with the note's early nineteenth-century origin. |
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| Comments |
The Kongelige Grønlandske Handel operated as a Danish crown monopoly over all trade in Greenland, and the colony notes it issued were not currency in any conventional sense — they were scrip, redeemable only within the colony and worthless outside it. Julianehaab, on the southwest coast, was one of the main settlement clusters, and notes were denominated locally to manage the company store economy rather than connect to any broader monetary system.
The dual denomination — 1 Rigsdaler and 96 Skilling simultaneously — reflects the Danish monetary relationship of the period, with 96 Skilling equaling 1 Rigsdaler Courant. Survival is exceptionally rare; Greenlandic colonial scrip had no reason to leave the colony and every reason to be destroyed or lost.