5 Roubles Arktikugol

Arktikugol — literally "Arctic Coal" — was the Soviet trust that operated coal mining on Svalbard under the terms of the 1920 Spitsbergen Treaty, which granted Norway sovereignty while permitting other signatories to conduct commercial activity there. The trust issued its own scrip for use at the Soviet settlements of Barentsburg and Pyramiden, a closed monetary system that kept hard currency out of workers' hands and prevented spending in Norwegian establishments.

The 1979 series was produced on white paper with a watermark — an unusual degree of security for what amounted to company store money. Workers received wages partly in this scrip, redeemable only through trust-operated facilities.