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10 Øre Great Norwegian Spitsbergen Coal Company
| Issuer | Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani Aktieselskap |
|---|---|
| Year | 1946-1956 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Krone (1875-date) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Utilitarian letterpress note on plain cream paper, with a large light-green underprint of the numeral '10' and 'øre' centred across the face. The issuer's name, Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani Aktieselskap, is set in bold display type beneath the heading 'Betalingsmerke utstedt av', followed by a block of Norwegian-language conditions of use text specifying the valid season 1952/53. Serial number and series designation appear in the upper corners, with two manuscript signatures above their respective printed titles at the foot. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed entirely in bold red letterpress on plain cream paper, occupied by the large denomination inscription '10 øre' in a decorative inline typeface centred across the full width of the note. Show-through of the obverse text is faintly visible. No vignettes, guilloche work, or additional design elements are present. |
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| Comments |
Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani was a genuine company scrip operation, not a banking institution — these notes were issued exclusively for use within the Longyearbyen mining settlement on Svalbard, where the company effectively ran the entire economy. Workers were paid partly in this scrip, which could only be spent at company-operated facilities. It was a closed monetary system by geographic necessity as much as by corporate design.
Svalbard's unusual legal status under the 1920 Spitsbergen Treaty complicated any attempt to integrate the settlement into the Norwegian monetary system. The scrip continued in use well into the postwar decade before being phased out.