Spitsbergen 1-ROUBLE¶

Composition

Aluminum-bronze

Country

Spitsbergen

Approx. Size

22mm

Area

Oceans

Animal Class

Mammals

Species

Polar Bear

KM#

12

Although Spitsbergen is a Norwegian territory, these are Russian coins minted in St. Petersburg for Russian coal miners working on the island.

The Polar bear (aka Ursus maritimus) looks quite formidable, and quite shaggy. That could be the northern lights pictured on either side of his head. Or, it could be the very air freezing in place because it is so freaking cold. The map the bear stands over looks like the entire Svalbard archipelago. This is a beautiful coin.

It is possible that these coins never actually circulated among the workers of the Arktikugol mining company, but it is hard to determine. They're too cool to exclude from zoo, even if they didn't get used.

The inscription on the obverse reads "Spitsbergen" over top of the Polar bear.

Spitsbergen¶

Area

Oceans

Spitsbergen (sometimes mispelled "Spitzbergen"), part of the Svalbard archipelego, is a barren mountainous island -- the name means "pointy peaks" -- in the Arctic Ocean that is closer to the North Pole than it is to the Arctic Circle. Lots of countries squabbled over this territory, mainly due to whaling interests, and in 1920 it was agreed it would go to Norway (almost 600 km due south).

There may be up to three settlements on the island, or there may only be one active settlement left today. It would be hard to hang around a place where night basically starts in late October and lasts until mid-February.

The Russian mining company Arktikugol set up camp here in 1932, and issued coins (tokens, really) for the workers in 1946, 1993, and 1998.