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5 Roubles Arktikugol
| Issuer | Arktikugol Trust |
|---|---|
| Year | 1951 |
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| Composition | Paper (White) |
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| Obverse lettering | CCCP МИНИСТЕРСТВО УГОЛЬНОЙ ПРОМЫШЛЕННОСТИ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ ТРЕСТ ,,АРКТИКУГОЛЬ` ТАЛОН No. НА ПРАВО ПОЛУЧЕНИЯ ТОВАРОВ В МАГАЗИ- НАХ РУДНИКОВ ТРЕСТА ,,АРКТИКУГОЛЬ` НА ОСТРОВЕ ШПИЦБЕРГЕН НА СУММУ ПЯТЬ РУБЛЕЙ НИКАКИЕ ЗАЯВЛЕНИЯ ОБ УТЕРЕ НЕ ПРИНИМАЮТСЯ 1951 (Translation: USSR State Trust Ministry of Coal Industry `Arktikugol` Coupon No. Gives rights to the bearer to recieve goods from the stores of the mines of the trust `Arktikugol` on the island of Spitsbergen The amount of five Roubles. No statement shall be accepted in the event of loss of the coupon. 1951) |
| Reverse description | Printed in light blue on white paper, the reverse is unlettered and relies entirely on typographic and ornamental elements. Two tall guilloche vignette panels, composed of intricate floral and star rosette motifs, flank the left and right edges, while a central ornamental cartouche carries the large numeral '5' in dark teal letterpress. The overall design is sparse and symmetrical, serving as a simple but distinctive bearer-token reverse. |
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| Comments |
Arktikugol — the Soviet coal mining trust that operated on Svalbard — issued its own scrip currency for use at the company settlement of Barentsburg, a necessity under the 1920 Svalbard Treaty, which granted Norway sovereignty over the archipelago while allowing Soviet nationals to conduct commercial activity there. Ordinary Soviet roubles had no legal footing on Norwegian-administered territory, so the trust ran its own closed monetary system entirely independent of Gosbank.
The 1951 series replaced an earlier set of Arktikugol notes and remained in use through multiple decades of mining operations. Circulation was tightly controlled within the settlement — scrip couldn't leave Barentsburg in any meaningful sense, which means surviving examples generally show light use.