50 Kopeks

Arktikugol — the Soviet-era coal trust that still operates the Russian mining settlement of Barentsburg on Svalbard — issues its own token coinage because Norwegian currency has no obligation to circulate within the concession. The 1998 series was produced well after the Soviet collapse, when the trust was running at a fraction of its former workforce and the Barentsburg economy had contracted sharply. These tokens remained the practical medium of exchange at the company store for the few hundred workers who stayed.