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1/4 Rigsdaler - Christian VII Kongelige Grønlandske Handel
| Issuer | Den Kongelige Grønlandske Handel (Royal Greenlandic Trading Company) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1804 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 165 × 110 mm |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 1/4 Rigsdaler. Den Kongelige Grönlandſke Handel be- taler denne Anviisning ved Handelsſtederne i Grönland med 1/4 Rdlr., ſkriver Fire og Tyve Skil ling Danſk Courant. Kiöbenhavn 1804. (Translation: 1/4 Rigsdaler. The Royal Greenlandic Trading will pay this note at the trading posts in Greenland with 1/4 Rigsdaler, written twentyfour Skilling Danish Courant. Copenhagen 1804) |
| Reverse description | Reverse is blank, showing only the plain paper stock with faint show-through of the obverse text visible through the sheet. |
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| Comments |
Den Kongelige Grønlandske Handel was a Danish Crown monopoly that controlled virtually all trade with Greenland, and these fractional notes were issued specifically for use within that system — not as general currency but as internal scrip, redeemable only through company channels. A Greenlandic colonist or worker had no practical way to spend them elsewhere. That captivity of circulation is precisely why surviving examples exist at all: the notes often sat unspent, returned to company stores, or were simply kept as the only paper money many holders ever encountered.
The 1804 dating places this issue in the later phase of the Handelsperiode, well before the 1953 constitutional integration that eventually dismantled such monopoly structures. The quarter-rigsdaler denomination is among the smallest in the series — fractional scrip at this scale points to wage payments or petty transactions within the colony rather than any meaningful commercial exchange.