... Coal mining still goes one but not on the scale it did in the early part of the last century... tourism is starting to become a bigger part of the Svalbard economy....Svalbard's visitors come mostly to experience its powerful nature... the islands feature untouched glaciers and craggy mountains... but also polar bears, caribou, a peculiar short legged reindeer, polar foxes, whales, seals and walruses...a variety of birds, including Arctic Terns, Arctic Fulmar and Puffins...
... Norwegian Post is also working on Svalbard and in Barentsburg is a post office... nowadays it is located in a hotel.... Norwegian stamps are used and the office has its own postmark... the image on the postmark is a Svalbard grouse... the postmark is not very clear though....Thanks a million Tone!! ✿◕ ‿ ◕✿
Barentsburg is a Russian mining settlement on Svalbard, a short distance away from Longyearbyen. It's a Russian village with a population of 500. The Soviet Union purchased the town and mining rights from the Dutch in 1932 and have been mining coal here ever since. Svalbard is Norwegian territory but they allow other nations to have mining settlements there.
A big part of Norway exists above the Arctic circle. Svalbard is a rather large archipelago in the Arctic ocean 400 km north of mainland Norway. The Svalbard treaty signed in 1925 which gave Norway sovereign rights over the islands.The main island is known as Spitsbergen. The main settlements of Longyearbyen, Ny-Ålesund and Barentsberg are here. The only other islands that could be considered inhabited are Bjørnøya (Bear Island) and Hopen.
Stamps:
Fauna - Birds
(02-01-2015)
Defenitive stamp - Post Horn
On Christmas Day 1871 Norway released an entirely new kind of definitive stamp: the crowned post horn. This is a design which has now been around continuously for 135 years.
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