Greenland mining tokens and coins - Data

TOKEN ISSUES - GREENLAND MINING LTD.

Just added some mining tokens to my Greenland collection. These three tokens were found at the Willimantic coin show this last weekend. These tokens are listed in Krause as Tn1, Tn2, and Tn3.

 

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The obverse includes the date within legend: GRØNLANDSK MINEDRIFTS-AKTIESELSKAB. I believe this legend translates simply to “Greenland Mine Drifts Corporation”. The tokens were used at the copper mine located in Southwest Greenland. The reverse includes crossed hammers over the denomination.

According to Krause, the mintage was 5,000 pieces and these tokens were manufactured L. Chr. Lauer in Nürnberg, Germany. According to a Website, L. Chr. Lauer GmbH still manufactures tokens & medals today.

 

These three pieces are nickel plated zinc. They exhibit the roughness & bubbled plating normally associated with this type of token.

Of course, I was very happy to find the three pieces in UNC condition.

 

In 1921 Denmark claimed the entire island, and Greenland was made a colony of the crown in 1924. These milled coins of the Danish Colony are dated 1926. The obverse has the crowned arms of Denmark with the legend GRØNLANDS STYRELSE. I believe this roughly translates to “Greenland Government”. The reverse depicts the popular walking polar bear with date & denomination. The 25 Ore is made of Copper-Nickel. The 50 Ore & 1 Kroner coins are Aluminum-Bronze.

Please bear with me while I locate my Greenland photos. The last time I posted them at CT was in December 2009 and they seem to be lost. In the mean time, here is the 50 Ore photo.

 

Sorry for the cheesy photos. I had to copy them from this older CT thread: http://www.cointalk.com/t83914/
These photos depict the Copper-Nickel 25 Ore & the Aluminum-Bronze 1 Krone

 

This 5 Kroner coin is dated 1944. It is Aluminum Bronze just like the earlier 1 Krone coin. Krause tells us that the 5 Kroner was struck for use by American forces in Greenland during WWII when 5 Kroner was equal to one U.S. dollar.

All these UNC walking polar bear coins were my Christmas gift in 2009. They were all slabbed by NGC & really got me interested in Greenland coins.

 

I owe my soul.... to the company store.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxGp1p2zVeQ

 

... a status that lasted for about 30 years only. As far as I know, the Danish move was due to Norwegian claims. Today Greenland, even though it is autonomous, still uses the Danish krone. Plans to issue at least local paper money (like the Faroes) have been done away with by the Greenlandic government. Would be nice if they introduced some, and coins too, in the future.

Christian

 

IVIGTUT CRYOLITE MINING & TRADING CO. - SEATED POLAR BEAR

There are some nice tokens that were issued by the Ivigtut Cryolite Mining & Trading Company. They depict a polar bear that is seated with its body upright. All these seated bear pieces in my collection are made of Copper-Nickel. Krause lists one of the larger (rare) 10 Kroner pieces being made of Aluminum Bronze.

(I’ve apparently lost some photos & will need to take some new pics tonight).

In the mean time - Please post ‘em if you got ‘em.

 

Nice coins. Seeing all of these wonderful BU Greenland coins probably is giving people the wrong impression. These are very scarce coins.

 

Indeed! And when they are seen they are typically in F to low XF condition. Krause used to not even list prices for Uncs since most are so scarce. I had a chance to pick up a nice Unc 1K and Gemmy 5K many years ago for only a couple hundred which was double XF price at the time. Shouldn't have passed on them.

 

Greenland 1926 25 Ore & 50 Ore

I snapped some new photos so I can share them now:

 

Greenland 1926 1 Krone & 1944 5 Krone

Greenland 1926 1 Krone & 1944 5 Krone

 

1926 Greenland 25 Ore (with hole)

In 1940/1941 the hole was added in New York to avoid confusion with the 1 Krone coins of Denmark.

 

Greenland 1922 Ivigtut Mining 10 Ore & 10 Krone coins

Greenland 1922 Ivigtut Mining 10 Krone & 10 Ore coins

These are about the size of a US dime & half dollar respectively.

 

Danish State

In 1953 Greenland became an integral part of the Kingdom of Denmark. This 1 Krone coin was issued by the Royal Greenland Trade Company in 1957. It is Aluminum-Bronze and 27.3 mm diameter.

 

Impressive coins!

 

That has got to be true-I have NEVER seen any of these coins before. All are very nice with interesting designs. Kudos to those that own them.

 

Hello Ancientnoob,

Are you planning to attend either the Naugatuck show this Saturday or the Danbury show this Sunday? Perhaps we could meet.

 

I would make the trek to meet you, my friend.