Greenland Skilling Banknotes

rbethea

Many of you, maybe all of you, are aware that the United States issued 3 denominations of notes for use of US servicemen in Greenland during WWII. You've probably even seen some of them. The three common ones I've shown below (they are uniface, so only obverse is shown).

1 skilling:

5 skilling:

20 skilling:

These are relatively common notes, available on the market for around $100/set or less.

What are much, much, much more uncommon are the earlier series of notes. What you see above are the notes that have the black stamp on what appears to be a watermark area. In fact, the older notes, issued in 1941, have an embossing there. The 20 skilling note can be had in UNC condition for between $200-$300, maybe a little more. But the 1 skilling and 5 skilling notes are very challenging to find. Why?

In 1981 - 1983, the Greenland "Folketingets" (Parliament, I suppose, is the best translation) released sets of these notes as follows:
The early 20 kroner embossed note - 100 notes released and sold at 225 DKK each.
The set of stamped notes - 1300 sets were released and sold at 148 DKK per set.
A second 100-note release of the later 20 skilling notes were released and sold at 148 DKK for four notes.

Notice that they never released the earlier, embossed 1 and 5 skilling notes. That is why these are rare notes.

I don't have WWII Remembered and don't know if these are mentioned in there, but it's worth noting that these were issued in Greenland to help regulate the differences in cost of living of the Americans to the much poorer Greenlanders. The exchange rate of USD to Greenland Skillings (which is their cents, in fact, where their "dollars" are "kroners") was highly regulated. Needless to say, the original objective was not a success, leading to the short circulation period of just about 1 year for these notes.

Now getting to the point, I had an opportunity to purchase an UNC set of the notes this week, which I did, from a dealer in Denmark, where I am visiting this week. Here is a picture of the notes. He also gave me an old Sieg catalog (the previous issue - he said he had "so many in inventory that he couldn't sell" - and I like free stuff ) and the pictured info sheet that was sold with the notes back in the early 1980s. I've shown you the side written in Greenlandic. The reverse is in Danish.

But now I have a problem. Because when I got to the hotel I was at and actually had a chance to look at them under a light, there is a bend in the 5 skilling note, clear as day. The 1 and 20 skilling notes are beautiful, but that darn 5 is NOT uncirculated and is really the key to the set.

I'm not a dealer. I don't buy to make a quick sell. And I got a good price on these notes. But I'm debating whether I contact the guy and complain about the condition. He was a stickler on the price before we met, but when I showed up and he found out I wasn't German (evidently he's had problems with them in the past) we had a very nice and friendly conversation.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the little history lesson and I'd appreciate any advice anyone feels like giving. Enjoy your Friday.

TheGrandRapidian

Very cool notes and history lesson. What's the harm in politely contacting him and inquiring about the 5?



I think its worth a shot.

Jim61

Robert, That is a super post! Thanks for sharing!



As for the 5, a polite contact may be in order and see how it goes.

Tookybandit

Super cool! I have not seen those before and enjoyed the story behind them.



It's tough sometimes once you have made the deal and left the store, but maybe you can negotiate for more of the 1980's sets that he cannot sell!

Berny

Here are the relevant 2 pages from WWII Remembered (1995):











I hate that this site does not allow large images anymore.

SaorAlba

I had to really squint to read all that, but thank you very much for posting that Bernie. Fascinating, I learned something about something I had practically no knowledge of this morning.

DepressionscripGuy

I agree as others have said, a polite contact and see what happens. You said you got a good deal...so is the price paid equal to the value of the 5 skilling note you have with the fold or would it be overpriced? Maybe you can sell the folded note and purchase another one at a good price from the same dealer?

oklahomadanny

Originally posted by: Berny

Here are the relevant 2 pages from WWII Remembered (1995):



I hate that this site does not allow large images anymore.

Bernie, could it be Photobucket in this case? They have constraints on size in the free version.



They have become a pain editing, cropping, resizing and replace original functions. Might be my messed up WinXP install though.

Berny

Originally posted by: oklahomadanny

Originally posted by: Berny

Here are the relevant 2 pages from WWII Remembered (1995):



I hate that this site does not allow large images anymore.

Bernie, could it be Photobucket in this case? They have constraints on size in the free version.



They have become a pain editing, cropping, resizing and replace original functions. Might be my messed up WinXP install though.

No, it is not Photobucket. However, if you don't take out the "~original" from the link, this forum will not post the image at all. See my thread on the "size" issue.

rbethea

Thank you all for your advice. I think I'm just going to let this water roll under the bridge. It's not worth making enemies over it. I don't know if the auction had anything to do with it (heavy on Greenland), but when Bowers sold a set in 2011 at NYINC an XF 1 skilling with a paper clip rust mark brought $1200 and the 5 skilling in cVF brought $900. Let's say I bought these for a little more than half the sum of those two. And I don't think a hoard has come to the market any time recently. But I could be wrong.



I forgot to mention that these notes were printed on large sheets with watermarks throughout the sheet, but not necessarily aligned with the notes. So it is not uncommon to find the older embossed notes with nary a sign of a watermark. In fact, that's why I chose this note. He actually had a slabbed 5 skilling note as well (!!) but I didn't go for it in part because it was marked with ICG's Star (like PCGS's NET) due to a little black speck in the blank area. But the main reason is because that five skilling note had no bearings of the watermark, whereas this one that I bought has a large portion of the watermark. When I get home (I'm still up on Copenhagen) I'll post a picture of the watermark.



Thanks Berny for posting the WWII Remembered excerpt!