Block of 100 1 kopeck vouchers with a total face value of 100 kopecks, in packaging, Perm Goznak Printing Factory.
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’ area, where people live and work who help ensure the electrical security of the Murmansk and Arkhangelsk Regions, as well as the Northern Fleet.
The first scrip on Svalbard was issued in 1916. Such small-change scrip was used by miners from the southern regions of the USSR who came to Svalbard under contract.
The Arktikugol trust began issuing not metal scrip in the form of tokens, as 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 in Soviet trade enterprises based on the island of Svalbard.
In 1961, 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 scrip of the 8th issue of the Arktikugol trust with a new design was released.
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 (now 1,800 Norwegians and 500 Russian citizens). In our settlements of Barentsburg, Grumant, and Pyramiden (the latter two now abandoned), large-scale coal development was carried out; unique mines and underground railways operated. By the end of the 1980s, coal reserves on Svalbard had been significantly depleted, and the Norwegian government reoriented the archipelago toward 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.