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10 Kroner Great Norwegian Spitsbergen Coal Company
| Issuer | Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani Aktieselskap |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918-1919 |
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| Value | 10 Kroner |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Yellow-ochre guilloche underprint covers the entire face, with large numeral "10 Kr." as a pale watermark-style underprint at centre. The issuer's name in ornate blackletter script is set within a decorative cartouche at top. Denomination "10 — Ti kroner" appears in a scrollwork vignette at centre, with two facsimile signatures and printed titles at lower left and right. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Reverse is entirely blank, without any printed text, vignette, or design element. |
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| Comments |
Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani — commonly known as Store Norske — was established in 1916 after Norwegian interests bought out an American mining operation on Svalbard. The company issued its own scrip because the archipelago sat outside any national monetary jurisdiction: the Svalbard Treaty wasn't signed until 1920, leaving the mining settlement at Longyearbyen in a legal grey zone where no sovereign currency had formal status. Company scrip was the only practical medium of exchange.
The "r" suffix on SN38r denotes a remainder — unissued examples that were never formally cancelled, which is why they survive in higher numbers than circulated pieces. Genuinely used examples with wear tell a different story about daily life in an Arctic coal camp.