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5 Kroner Den Kongelige Grønlandske Handel. Type II: Straight edge, watermark
| Issuer | Den Kongelige Grønlandske Handel (Royal Greenlandic Trading Company) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1911 |
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| Value | 5 Kroner (5 DKK) |
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| Obverse description | Green and yellow letterpress print on white paper with an ornate border formed by the denomination rendered in full text and numerals in each corner. A central vignette presents a polar bear standing on ice, set within a circular frame, with the issuer name inscribed below and the promissory legend arching above. The four corners of the note carry alternating Danish and Greenlandic coats of arms, connected by cloud-pattern guilloche underprint elements spanning the full width of the note. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | DENNE-ANVISNING-GÆLDER VED-HANDELSSTEDERNE-I-GRØNLAND-FOR FEM-KRONE DEN KGL. GRØNLANDSKE HANDEL-KØBENHAVN 1911 (Translation: This note is valid at the Trading Posts in Greenland for 5 Kroner Royal Greenlandic Trading, Copenhagen 1911) |
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| Comments |
Den Kongelige Grønlandske Handel was never a bank in any conventional sense — it was a Danish state monopoly that controlled virtually all commerce in Greenland from 1774 onward, and its scrip functioned as a closed-currency system usable only within the colony. Notes could not be exchanged for Danish kroner on the mainland, a deliberate mechanism to prevent capital leaving Greenland and to keep the indigenous Greenlandic population economically bound to company stores.
The Type II designation distinguishes this from the earlier deckle-edged printing, the straight cut being a later production refinement. Watermarked examples are notably harder to locate than the unwatermarked variants in this series.