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20 Markkaa
| Issuer | Bank of Finland (Suomen Pankki / Finlands Bank) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1891-1894 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | P#52 |
| Obverse description | Black intaglio print on reddish guilloche underprint. The Imperial Russian double-headed Czarist eagle appears as a central vignette in the upper portion of the note. Bilingual text in Swedish on the left and Finnish on the right flanks the central design, with the denomination repeated in both languages around the border in letterpress. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The Finnish arms — the Lion of Finland — appear within a central vignette, encircled by the bilingual bank name. Bilingual text in Swedish (left) and Finnish (right) is supplemented by Russian text along the lower margin. A microprinted border in Swedish and Finnish contains the statutory declaration governing gold redemption of the notes. |
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| Comments |
Finland in the early 1890s occupied a peculiar constitutional position — an autonomous Grand Duchy under the Russian Tsar, yet operating its own central bank and currency entirely separately from the Russian ruble system. The markka had been pegged to gold since 1878, and these notes circulated under that discipline, backed by a bank that answered more to Helsinki than to St. Petersburg.
The P#52 series preceded the February Manifesto of 1899 by which Tsar Nicholas II began dismantling Finnish autonomy — a political storm that would eventually draw the currency question into sharp relief. What circulated quietly in the 1890s would become contested ground within a decade.