Finland 10 markkaa 1879

Finland 10 markkaa 1879

Obverse: Crowned double-headed eagle with royal apple and sceptre.

Reverse: Denomination and year

General: Difficult coin, mintage of only 200,000 copies! Top quality!

Through Tsar Alexander II's gracious manifesto, on April 4, 1860, Finland received its own monetary unit, the mark, which was tied to the unstable ruble. The name mark was motivated, among other things, with it being the oldest known word in Finland for money, originally the name of a medieval unit of weight.

Johan Vilhelm Snellman was appointed in 1863 as head of the finance department in the Senate's Department of Economics. From this post he led Finland's economic policy. His most important achievement was that he introduced the silver standard for land in 1865, which stabilized the value of the land.

The coin reform did not provide a lasting solution as the price of silver began to fall in the 1870s and the states switched to the gold standard one by one: Germany in 1871, Denmark and Sweden in 1873, Norway in 1875 and Finland in 1878. Russia only switched to the gold standard in 1897.

The redemption of banknotes for gold ceased in Finland in 1915. During the period 1926–1931, the gold standard was applied again, which ceased during the depression of the early 1930s. After this, notes could no longer be redeemed for gold.

The historical Finnish banknotes reflect the country's economic and political history. Due to the shortage of silver at the beginning of the 20th century, the banknote series was expanded with notes in the denominations of 1 mark and 25 and 50 pence. During the era of national romanticism, the motifs on the banknotes designed by Eliel Saarinen and introduced in 1909 were taken from Finland's nature, various industries, livestock farming, forestry and shipping. The independence era banknote series (1922 type) is associated with classicism and the human figures reflect the belief in a bright future.