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5 Marka

Issuer Estonian Ministry of Finance
Year 1919
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Value 5 Marka
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Reverse description Printed in a matching blue-grey palette over a dense guilloche ground, the reverse is centred on an oval landscape vignette of an open field beneath a cloudy sky, with the numeral '5' at lower left and right. Trilingual parallel inscriptions identify the note in German at upper left and Swedish at upper right, while a Russian-language legend runs along the lower margin.
Reverse lettering KASSENSCHEIN
DER ESTNISCHEN REPUBLIK
ESTNISKA
REPUBLIKENS KASSASEDEL
5
КАЗНАЧЕЙСКІЙ ЗНАКЪ ЭСТОНСКОЙ РЕСПУБЛИКИ
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Comments

Estonia's first domestic currency issues came under extreme pressure in 1919 — the War of Independence against both Soviet Russian and German Baltic forces was still active, and the Ministry of Finance was printing money while the country's borders remained genuinely contested. The marka replaced the provisional ostmark and kerenki notes that had circulated since the collapse of Tsarist authority, but public confidence in any paper instrument was understandably fragile.

Pick 45 is among the earliest notes printed entirely under Estonian authority rather than inherited from occupying or transitional administrations. The paper quality on surviving examples is frequently poor, reflecting wartime supply constraints rather than storage history.

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