5000 Markkaa 1939

Finland's highest-denomination note at the time of issue, the 5000 Markkaa was printed just as the country was mobilizing for what would become the Winter War against the Soviet Union — hostilities began in November 1939, barely months after notes bearing this date entered circulation. At that level of purchasing power, the note was not a retail instrument; it moved between banks and larger commercial entities, which is precisely why heavily circulated examples are uncommon.

Pick 68 belongs to a series printed by the Finnish State Printing Office in Helsinki, and the 1939 date marks the last issue of this denomination before wartime finance fundamentally restructured Suomen Pankki's emission priorities.