Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
500 Markkaa, Litt. A
| Issuer | Suomen Pankki (Bank of Finland) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1945 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 500 Markkaa |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Printed in blue, the obverse carries a central vignette of eleven figures engaged in an agricultural harvesting scene, with a rural landscape receding into the distance. The bank name appears in Finnish at left and in Swedish at right, with a large numeral 500 at centre-left and a blank shield cartouche at lower right. Two authorising signatures appear at bottom centre, the Litt. A designation is letterpress-printed in black at lower left, and serial numbers are placed at upper left and lower right, with the series year 1945 in the bottom margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed entirely in blue, the reverse is dominated by a fine guilloche underprint of radiating pine branches that fills the entire field. Finland's national coat of arms — a crowned lion rampant on a field strewn with roses — is set within a shield at centre. Large numerals 500 appear twice in the lower portion of the design, with smaller 500 numerals repeated in each of the four corners, and the year 1945 is inscribed in the bottom margin. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Finland's postwar monetary situation in 1945 was precarious — war reparations to the Soviet Union were straining the economy, and inflationary pressure was already building toward the 1945 currency reform, which slashed the markka's value and required exchange of old notes at a ratio of 2:1. Notes from this period exist in two distinct states: those exchanged and overstamped during the reform, and unexchanged survivors.
The Litt. A designation distinguishes this from later lithographic printings produced as wartime paper shortages forced quality compromises. Suomen Pankin Setelipaino had operated the intaglio presses continuously through the war years, and the 1945 500 Markkaa retained that higher-relief print quality even as the economic situation it circulated in deteriorated rapidly.