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5 Kopeks Arktikugol
| Issuer | Arktikugol Trust |
|---|---|
| Year | 1935 |
| Type | Vouchers |
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| Obverse description | Printed in black on cream paper with a fine guilloche underprint in pale red and yellow. The issuer's name and institutional title appear in bold Cyrillic letterpress at the top, separated by ruled lines, with the word ОРДЕР set in spaced capitals within the guilloche field. The denomination numeral '5' is printed in large bold figures on either side of the central Cyrillic text, with facsimile signatures of the Trust Manager and Chief Accountant in script at the lower right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | АРКТИКУГОЛЬ ШПИЦБЕРГЕНСКОЕ РУДОУПРАВЛЕНИЕ ОРДЕР ДЛЯ ЗАБОРА ТОВАРОВ НА СУММУ 5 ПЯТЬ КОПЕЕК 5 В РАСПРЕДЕЛИТЕЛЕ РУДНИКОВ ТРЕСТА АРКТИКУГОЛЬ НА О. ШПИЦБЕРГЕНЕ НИКАКИЕ ЗАЯВЛЕНИЯ ОБ УТЕРЕ ОРДЕРОВ ВО ВНИМАНИЕ НЕ ПРИНИМАЮТСЯ Упр. трестом Арктикуголь Главный бухгалтер (Translation: Arktikugol Spitsbergen Mining Administration. Coupon. Gives the right to receive goods to the value of 5 Five Kopeks from the distribution stores of the mines of the Arktikugol Trust on the island of Spitsbergen. No statements regarding the loss of coupons will be considered. Manager of the Arktikugol Trust. Chief Accountant.) |
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| Comments |
Arktikugol — the Soviet Arctic coal trust — operated the Svalbard mining settlements under the terms of the 1920 Spitsbergen Treaty, which granted Norway sovereignty but allowed other signatory nations to conduct commercial activity on the archipelago. Because Svalbard sat outside Soviet territory proper, ordinary Soviet rubles could not legally circulate there in the usual sense, which gave rise to these trust-issued scrip notes, redeemable only within the company's own settlements at Barentsburg and later Pyramiden.
The 1935 series was printed during a period of aggressive Soviet expansion of the Svalbard operation, as Stalin's government sought to maximize coal output from the High Arctic. Workers were paid in this scrip and could spend it only at the trust's own stores — a closed-loop system that gave management complete control over purchasing.
The NP#AR13A designation places this among the lower denominations of the 1935 issue, where surviving examples tend to show heavier wear than the higher values.