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50 Kroner Great Norwegian Spitsbergen Coal Company
| Issuer | Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani Aktieselskap |
|---|---|
| Year | 1976 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | The entire field is covered by a dense typographic underprint repeating the issuer's name "STORENORSKESPITSBERGENKULKOMPANI" in blue, serving as the sole security element. Letterpress text in black printed over the underprint carries the series designation, note number, date (1976), issuer name in full, and the central denomination statement "50 FEMTI KRONER 50", together with the conditions of use in Norwegian. Two manuscript signatures appear at lower centre, attributed respectively to the Chairman of the Board and the Office Manager, Spitsbergen. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | «Not valid outside Spitsbergen.» 50 |
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| Comments |
Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani — majority owned by the Norwegian state since 1934 — operated the mining settlement of Longyearbyen on Svalbard under conditions that made conventional banking almost irrelevant. The company scrip issued here was functional currency within the settlement, where the company controlled housing, the store, and virtually every commercial transaction. Scrip kept wages circulating internally rather than bleeding out of an isolated Arctic economy with no competing retail economy to speak of.
By 1976, this system was already an anachronism. Norwegian banking reached Svalbard shortly after, and the scrip series was retired.