10 Euros Centenary of the Republic of Estonia

Estonia declared independence on February 24, 1918, but the centenary it commemorates was barely secured — German forces occupied most of the country at the moment of declaration, and a war of independence against both Soviet and German-backed forces followed immediately, lasting until 1920. The republic that coin celebrates had, at its founding, no guaranteed future whatsoever.

The Bank of Estonia itself was re-established in 1990, nearly two years before the Soviet Union formally dissolved — an early and deliberate assertion of institutional sovereignty ahead of de jure independence.