Spitsbergen¶
- Area
- Oceans
- Coins
- 6
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.
