10 Roubles Sinking of Kursk; "КУРСК"

Arktikugol Trust, the Soviet-era coal mining conglomerate that maintained a nominal Russian presence on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, issued commemorative currency for internal use at its settlements of Barentsburg and Pyramiden — a legal peculiarity permitted under the 1920 Svalbard Treaty, which barred Norway from imposing its currency on commercial operations there. This piece was struck in 2001 following the loss of the submarine Kursk in August 2000, when all 118 crew perished after an onboard torpedo explosion during a naval exercise in the Barents Sea.

The Russian government's delayed rescue response and initial refusal of foreign assistance became one of the defining public scandals of Putin's first year in office.