10 Markkaa Independence

Issued to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Finnish independence, declared on December 6, 1917, while the country was extracting itself from the Russian Empire amid the chaos of the Bolshevik revolution. The timing of that declaration — exploiting the power vacuum in Petrograd — gave Finland its opening, and Moscow's new government recognized Finnish sovereignty within weeks.

The coin was Finland's first commemorative silver issue in the modern markka series, setting a precedent for the anniversary coinage that would follow through subsequent decades.