50 Kopecks Turku - Contor

The Wäxel-Låne-och Depositions Contor — the Exchange, Loan and Deposit Office — was established in 1811 as Finland's first proper banking institution following the Russian annexation two years earlier. This 50 Kopeck note, payable at the Turku branch, belongs to the earliest series issued under that institution, predating the founding of the Bank of Finland in 1812 by barely a year — in fact, the Contor was formally reorganized into the Bank of Finland during the very period these notes were circulating.

The denomination in kopecks rather than riksdaler reflects the deliberate monetary realignment toward Russian imperial currency, a policy choice that made these small-value notes practically novel to a Finnish public still thinking in Swedish monetary terms.