1915 Island Creek Stores Co. Coupons Full Set Uncirculated. Printed by the Allison Coupon Company, Indianapolis, IN.
These coupons were only found in the USA. None have been found on Svalbard, Norway.

Arctic Coal Company - John Munro Longyear, an American, visited Spitsbergen as a tourist with his family in the summer of 1901. He observed coal exploration in Bellsund and spent some time ashore in Adventfjord where he saw outcrops of coal. His interest piqued, he made a second trip and obtained coal samples that proved to be of high quality. Longyear and an associate, Frederick Ayer of Boston, purchased the tracts from Trondhjem-Spitsbergen Kulkompagni on January 1, 1905 for 50,000 Kroner in fully paid shares and 10,000 Kroner cash. Development started in 1905 and the first company building was constructed in 1906 by Wm. D. Munroe, who found and acquired additional promising tracts at Sassenfjord and Kapp Boheman.
Arctic Coal Company was incorporated in Boston on February 6, 1906.

The company shut down in the autumn of 1915. During the American period 160,000 metric tons of coal were produced and shipped to Norway. The Russian-Siberian Company was very interested in purchasing the Arctic Coal Company along with other Russian, German, Norwegian, and Swedish companies. F. Hiorth, C. Anker, and others were encouraging Norwegian interests to purchase the American company. It resulted in the government sending Adolf Hoel and Svalheim, geologists and mining experts to Isfjord to investigate. Their favorable report of September 1915 led to the Norwegian government exerting pressure on the Central Bank, whose president, Kjelland-Torkildsen, signed an offer in March of 1916 that resulted in the purchase of the Arctic Coal Company.

Around 1960 booklets of coupons were found during a clean-up in the basement of the former Arctic Coal Co. office building. These scrip are labeled Island Creek Stores Company and were to be used at their supply store.

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