10 Chervontsev Mao Zedong

Arktikugol Trust, the Russian state enterprise that has administered the Soviet — and later Russian — coal mining settlement of Barentsburg on Svalbard since the 1930s, periodically issues token coinage denominated in chervontsy for use within that remote community. These pieces circulate as a local scrip in a jurisdiction where Norway holds sovereignty but Russia maintains a treaty-guaranteed presence under the 1920 Spitsbergen Treaty. The Mao Zedong subject on a 2013 Russian Arctic trust issue is an unusual pairing that likely reflects the series' broader practice of issuing collector-oriented tokens with internationally recognizable figures rather than any particular political statement.