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5 Kopecks Arktikugol
| Issuer | Arktikugol Trust |
|---|---|
| Year | 1961 |
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| Reference(s) | NP#AR63 |
| Obverse description | Dark blue printed text and denomination numerals flanking left and right. Blue rosette guilloche in underprint at center. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | 5 1961 |
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| Comments |
Arktikugol — the Soviet coal-mining trust operating on Svalbard under the terms of the 1920 Spitsbergen Treaty — issued its own internal scrip because Norwegian law governed the archipelago while Soviet enterprises operated there under treaty rights. Norwegian kroner were technically the legal currency, but the trust ran a closed company-town economy at Barentsburg and Pyramiden, and paying workers in rubles would have created foreign-exchange complications Moscow preferred to avoid. The scrip solved this neatly: denominated in kopecks and rubles, accepted only at trust-run shops and facilities, and worthless outside the settlements.
The 1961 date aligns with Khrushchev's currency reform, which redenominated Soviet money at 10:1. Arktikugol updated its scrip series accordingly.