10 Euros Pehr Kalm

Pehr Kalm was among the most consequential of Linnaeus's students — dispatched to North America in 1748 on a Swedish Academy of Sciences expedition to find plants that might survive Nordic climates. He spent nearly three years traveling from Philadelphia to Quebec, and his published account, En Resa til Norra America, became one of the earliest systematic natural histories of the continent written by a European field botanist. The genus Kalmia, the mountain laurels, was named in his honor by Linnaeus himself.

Kalm was born in Swedish-controlled territory that is now Finland, which gives the Finnish mint a credible claim on him. The coin was issued as part of a Finnish nature and science commemorative series.