Svalbard is an archipelago belonging to Norway, but under the 1920 Paris Treaty the Soviet state—and later modern Russia as its legal successor—has conducted coal mining on the islands. The Arktikugol trust owns 250 sq. km of the islands’ territory, where people live and work, ensuring electrical safety for the Murmansk and Arkhangelsk regions, as well as for the Northern Fleet.
Bonds were first issued on Svalbard in 1916. Such change tokens were used by miners from the southern regions of the USSR who came to Svalbard on contract.
The Arktikugol trust did not begin issuing metal tokens like other companies did, but paper notes. The issuance of currency substitutes began in 1931.
No year was indicated on them; they were printed so that workers could make purchases only at Soviet retail enterprises based on the Svalbard archipelago.
In 1961, when the Arktikugol trust was transferred from the Ministry of the Coal Industry to the Ministry of the Merchant Fleet. When in 1979 the company was transferred back, new notes of the 8th issue of the Arktikugol trust were released with a new design.
Despite Norway’s sovereignty, Soviet influence on Svalbard was very significant; for example, in the 1980s more than 2,000 Soviet citizens lived on Svalbard, and only about 1,000 Norwegians (today there are 1,800 Norwegians and 500 Russian citizens). In our settlements of Barentsburg, Grumant, and Pyramiden (the latter two are now abandoned), large-scale coal development was carried out, unique mines operated, and underground railways functioned. By the end of the 1980s, coal reserves on Svalbard had been significantly depleted, and the Norwegian government refocused the archipelago on tourism and an expeditionary/scientific base: at present, Svalbard’s economy is profitable and self-sustaining. Arktikugol, however, was unable to cope with a similar task.