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!
10 Kopeks Arktikugol
| Issuer | Arktikugol Trust (Государственный трест Арктикуголь) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1957 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 10 Kopeks (0.10) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| 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 | Red and orange bicolour print on plain paper. Large numeral denominators flank a central guilloche rosette underprint, with serial number and full issuing authority text in red. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | 10 1957 10 |
| 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 |
Arktikugol — the Soviet state coal trust operating on Svalbard — issued its own scrip currency because Norwegian law prohibited Soviet roubles from circulating on the archipelago. The 1957 series replaced an earlier postwar issue and remained in use among workers at the Barentsburg and Pyramiden mining settlements, where the scrip functioned as the sole medium of exchange in trust-operated stores. Workers were paid partly in this currency, partly in roubles held on account in the USSR — a deliberate arrangement that limited spending options and controlled what miners could acquire.
The Svalbard Treaty of 1920 is the legal root of this note's existence: it grants signatory nations the right to conduct commercial activity on the archipelago under Norwegian sovereignty, a jurisdictional compromise the Soviets exploited methodically.