Greenland 25-ORE (KM5)¶
-
Reverse POLAR BEAR
-
Obverse Coat of Arms
- Composition
- Copper-Nickel
- Country
- Greenland
- Approx. Size
- 25mm
- Area
- North America
- Animal Class
- Mammals
- Species
- Polar Bear
- KM#
- 5
Polar Bears live at the top of the food chain at the top of the world in five countries: Canada (over half of them), Greenland, Norway, Russia, and the United States (Alaska). They do not live in the southern polar region where penguins live. As a Danish colony (1921-1953) Greenland has only issued four different coins, all featuring the Polar Bear. This coin issue later had a hole put through the centre (KM#6) to "avoid confusion with the 1 Krone coins of Denmark" (Krause). This coin doesn't resemble the 1 krone Danish coins in the least.
Greenland¶
- Area
- North America
Eric the Red visited Greenland when it was still green in 982, and four years later people decided to live there full time. Denmark took Greenland under its wing in 1261. Over the next 140 years or so, Greenland turned mostly white, and by around 1400 it was too cold for even the cows, so everybody left. Over 300 years later, in 1721, Denmark came back for another try. After two hundred years they were successful enough to claim the whole island. Greenland became autonomous in 1979. Greenland is the only known source of natural cryolite on the planet.
