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Greenland’s early paper money emerged from a unique economic system shaped by Danish colonial policy and the extreme isolation of the Arctic. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, nearly all commerce on the island was controlled by the Royal Greenland Trading Department — a state-run monopoly that supplied goods, managed trade, and regulated local economic life. Cash circulation was minimal, and currency functioned less as a free-market medium and more as an administrative tool within a tightly supervised trading network.

Notes such as the Rigsmønt skilling issues of the 1850s were printed in Copenhagen under official contract and shipped north for potential use across colonial stations. Many were never issued. Remainders survive today in far better condition than any circulated examples would have, because Greenland’s harsh climate — humidity, ice, salt exposure, and continual handling in remote settlements — destroyed most paper before it could reach modern collectors. As a result, early Greenlandic notes are studied largely through unissued remainders and proof material.

These early Danish-Greenland notes are historically important not for wide circulation, but for what they reveal about colonial logistics, remote trade infrastructure, and the earliest formal currency planning in the Arctic world. Their clean, Copenhagen-engraved layouts contrast sharply with the rugged trading-post economy they were intended to serve — an economy that relied more on barter, supply shipments, and store-credit systems than on everyday use of paper money.

The selection below highlights this foundational phase of Greenland’s monetary history. Use the filters above to explore Rigsmønt issues, Danish administrative printings, remainders, and future additions documenting the evolution of currency in one of the most geographically isolated regions ever to issue paper money.

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Greenland 1856 6 Skilling R.M. Danish Administration Pick A33r Remainder PMG 64 Choice Uncirculated

Greenland 1856 — 6 Skilling R.M. (Pick A33r, Danish Administration, PMG 64 Choice Uncirculated, Remainder)

Unissued 6 Skilling Rigsmoent note prepared for the Danish colonial administration in Greenland, dated 1856 and printed in Copenhagen under royal contract. Catalogued as Pick A33r, this is a remainder issue, never signed or released for circulation. It belongs to the earliest organized currency system of Greenland, a period when the island's economy operated almost entirely through the Royal Greenland Trading Department. ... Read more →

GreenlandColonial Remainder Note18566 Skilling R.M.PMG 64 Choice Uncirculated (Remainder) GreenlandDanish Administration6 Skilling1856Colonial CurrencyRemainderPick a33rRoyal Greenland Trading DepartmentArctic EconomyEducationalNumismatic History
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