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5 Roubles Arktikugol
| Issuer | Arktikugol Trust |
|---|---|
| Year | 1957 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 132 × 73 mm |
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| Obverse description | Blue print on white paper; central guilloche rosette with numeral 5 at left, issuer text in dark blue at top, red serial number at upper right, and value in large Cyrillic text at lower right. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | 5 5 |
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| Comments |
Arktikugol — the Soviet Arctic coal-mining trust — operated the Barentsburg settlement on Svalbard under the terms of the 1920 Spitsbergen Treaty, which granted Norway sovereignty while allowing Soviet economic activity. Because Svalbard sits outside Soviet and Norwegian monetary jurisdiction in practical terms, Arktikugol issued its own scrip for use within the settlement's internal economy, preventing hard currency from leaking out and keeping workers financially captive to the company store. The 1957 series coincided with the post-Stalin reorganization of Soviet industrial trusts.
These notes are sometimes called "polar money" by collectors, though they functioned as straightforward truck-shop coupons rather than anything more exotic.